EMS OP THOUGHT 



A BOOK OF TtHUfS8N WtSi^SWWN AUTfSORS 



PROFBS8C& C. W. LBADSBATER 
WILUAM KENRY MiRR 
NORA BATCHELOR 
MARY E. FRANCE 
DP. J. M. PEEBLES 
DR. H. V. SWERINCCN 
WALTER HUDSON RINEHART 
J. R. PERRY 

AM BORRMAN 
JUDGE PARISH B. LAB© 
HENRY MORRISON TSFPT 
B. B. HILL 
W. J. COLYILLE 




0lass3£±O^ 

Book -,T? 

Gopyiight N° 



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GEMS OF THOUGHT 



SCINTILLATIONS 
FROM THE PENS OF LEADING AUTHORS 



ILLUMINATING, INSTRUCTIVE 
AND INSPIRING 



NEW LIGHT FROM MANY SOURCES UPON SUB- 
• JECTS OF GREAT INTEREST TO MANKIND 



Compiled by 
J. R. FRANCIS AND M. E. CADWALLADER 



CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 

THE PROGRESSIVE THINKER PUBLISHING HOUSE 

1911 



o 



^T 



Copyright, 1911, 

BY 

M. E. CADWALLADER. 



TRANSFffiREl 

Cufrrf.Glir vhn c 



|UH2«llf^ 



GEMS OF THOUGHT, 



A Book of Thirteen Well-Known Authors, 



Professor C. W. Leadbeater 
William Henry Burr 
Nora Batehelor 
Mary E. France 
Dr. J. M. Peebles 
Dr. H. V. Siveringen 
Walter Hudson Binehart 
J. B. Perry 
William Borrman 
Jud£e Parish B. Ladd 
Henry Morrison Tefft 
B. B. Hill 
W. J. Colville 



INTRODUCTION. 

In presenting to the patrons of THE 
PROGRESSIVE THINKER this array of 
brilliant articles from the pens of well-known 
authors, it is with a feeling of satisfaction that 
it will be the means of adding to the general 
store of knowledge for which the public is 
eagerly searching. 

This compilation was begun by J. R. 
Francis, the founder of THE PROGRESS- 
IVE THINKER, and was left unfinished 
by his passing from this sphere of existence, 
after which the work was completed by the 
undersigned. Its object is to interest the 
thinking people, and lead them into ad- 
vanced lines of thought upon the issues of 
the day. 

THE PROGRESSIVE THINKER 
library is composed of books which will rank 
with the leading books upon Spiritual, Edu- 
cational, Scientific and Occult subjects, and 
in adding to it this volume "GEMS OF 
THOUGHT" we are but enhancingits value. 

We trust the reader will enjoy it and 
accept it with the best wishes of the publisher. 

M. E. Cadwallader. 



Clairvoyance in Space. 



A Lecture Delivered Before a Chicago Audience, by 

C. W. Leadbeater, the Great Psychic, 

of London, England, 



VARIETIES OF CLAIRVOYANCE— MAGICAL AND GENU- 
INE CLAIRVOYANCE— ILLUSTRATION BY WIRELESS 
TELEGRAPHY — THOUGHT-FORM CLAfRVOYANCE— 
TRANCE AND ASTRAL VISIT— USING THE MENTAL 
BODY— CRYSTAL GAZING— INTERESTING PSYCHIC 
INCIDENTS— MEANINGLESS VISIONS. 

We spoke last week of what a man would see with opened 
sight if he simply looked round him just where he stood, 
without making any effort to penetrate into the distance, 
either of space or time. To-day we have to consider the ca- 
pacity to see events or scenes removed from the seer in 
space and too far distant for ordinary observation. When a 
man in one continent observes and reports what is taking 
place in another, thousands of miles away, how is it done? 

VARIETIES OF CLAIRVOYANCE. 

Some people may think that the first question ought to be, 
is it ever done? Yes, there is no doubt whatever that it has 
been done very often. Anyone who is as yet uncertain as to 
this should read the large numbers of authenticated in- 
stances given in the literature of the subject. Cases will be 
found in the reports of the Psyciical Research Society, and 
in almost any account of Spiritualistic phenomena. There 
can be no question in the minds of those who have studied 
the subject that clairvoyance in space is a possibility — in- 

1 



2 CLAIRVOYANCE IN SPACE. 

deed, for us in Theosophy this is so definitely so that we 
know no less than five ways in which it can be done, as I 
shall proceed to explain. Of these five ways, four are 
really varieties of clairvoyance, while the fifth does not 
properly come under that head at all, but belongs to the do- 
main of magic. I mention it here only because a person 
who was endeavoring to classify cases of clairvoyance would 
sooner or later come across cases of its use, and would very 
likely be puzzled by them. People often write to Theoso- 
phists and describe some experience connected with non- 
physical life, and ask how the result was produced, and 
sometimes such questions are very difficult to answer — not 
because the phenomena are ^are, but because they are so 
common; not that there is any difficulty in accounting for 
them, but that there are so many ways in which they might 
have occurred, that without full and careful cross-examina- 
tion it is impossible to say which method was actually em- 
ployed. 

MAGICAL AND GENUINE CLAIRVOYANCE. 

But one may usually distinguish this magical procedure 
from genuine clairvoyance, because its leading feature is 
that it is not by any faculty of the seer that information is 
obtained; in fact, he does not see what happens at all, but 
he is told by another. He simply sends somebody to see 
from him, though when he has learnt what he wishes to 
know, he very likely gives it out as though he had seen it 
himself. In the East this method is largely employed, and 
the messenger there is usually a nature-spirit, whose assist- 
ance may be obtained either by invocation or by evocation; 
that is to say, the operator may either persuade his astral 
coadjutor by prayers and offerings to give him such help as 
he desires, or he may compel his aid by the determined ex- 
ercise of a highly developed will and certain magical cere- 
monies. The same thing is often done at a Spiritualistic 
seance, but there the messenger employed is more likely to 
be a dead man, though sometimes there, too, it is only an 
obliging nature-spirit, who is amusing himself by posing as 
somebody's departed relation. Of course there are also cases 
in which the medium is a clairvoyant, but much more often 
some dead man goes and sees what is needed, and then 
comes back and describes it through the organism of the 
medium. Whichever be the method or the messenger, we 
may dismiss as not genuine clairvayonce any case in which 



CLAIRVOYANCE IN SPACE. 3 

the faculty employed is not that of the seer himself. 

One who possesses the type of clairvoyance of which we 
spoke last week, and is able to see the astral entities as they 
move about him, is not therefore necessarily also dowered 
with this faculty of seeing at a distance. He would still 
have to learn this,- though it ought not to be difficult for him 
to acquire it, and it would be done by one of the four meth- 
ods which I shall try to describe. 

The first has certain analogies on the physical plane, but 
none of them are perfect. If you can imagine a telephone 
along the wire of which we could see instead of hearing, that 
would give a partial analogy. Think of the new system of 
wireless telegraphy; the vibrations spread out in all direc- 
tions, but suppose they spread in one direction only, and 
made a kind of temporary wire as they moved by arranging 
or magnetizing or polarizing the particles of the ether so 
that for the time a special current could pass along them, 
then we should have another analogy; and by combining the 
two ideas we shall have a fair image of this kind of clair- 
voyance, which has sometimes been called seeing by means 
of an astral current. By an effort of will such action may be 
set up among astral particles as to form a line of them along 
which the clairvoyant may see, something as though he were 
looking through a telescope. This method has the disad- 
vantage that this telegraph line or telescope is liable to dis- 
arrangement or even destruction by any sufficiently strong 
astral current which happens to cross its path; but if the 
original effort of will were fairly definite, this would not 
often happen. The view of distant events obtained in this 
way is usually not unlike that gained by means of a tele- 
scope. Figures appear very small, like those upon a distant 
stage, and they are often seen in the midst of a disc of light, 
as though they were scenes thrown upon a sheet from a 
magic lantern. The observer has no power to shift his point 
of view so as to understand better what he sees, nor can he, 
as a rule, exercise any further faculty; he would not, for ex- 
ample, be able to hear what was being said among those dis» 
tant actors. 

In this case the consciousness of the clairvoyant remains 
at this end of the line, so that he is able to use his physical 
organs while he sees, and can describe everything as it oc- 
curs. This is one of the commonest orders of sight at a dis- 
tance, and for many people it is very much facilitated if they 
have some physical object which can be used as a starting- 



4 CLAIRVOYANCE IN SPACE. 

point for their astral telegraph line or tube — a convenient fo- 
cus for their will-power. A ball of crystal is the commonest 
and most effectual of such aids, since it has the advantage of 
possessing within itself qualities which stimulate psychic 
faculty. There are plenty of cases on record in which by 
means of a crystal men have seen what took place at a dis- 
tance; but this belongs more properly to a later stage of our 
subject! 

THOUGHT-FORM CLAIRVOYANCE. 

Let us compare this with another type of clairvoyance— 
that by means of a thought-form. All students of Theosophy 
are aware that thought takes form on its own plane, and 
very much of it upon the astral plane as well; and in some 
cases this thought takes the form of the thinker. If a man 
thinks of himself very strongly as present at a certain 
place or wishes very strongly to be there, he will often pro- 
ject an image of himself which will be visible to clairvoyant 
sight. Normally the man has no control over such a form 
when it has once left him, but there are methods by which a 
man may retain such connection with it as may enable him 
to receive impressions through it — to use it as a kind of out- 
post of his consciousness. In such cases, the impressions 
made upon the form would be conveyed to the seer not along 
a line of astral particles, as in the last case, but by sympa- 
thetic vibration. In exercising this type of sight, the opera- 
tor will still be perfectly conscious at his own end of the line, 
and so can describe as he sees, so long as he does not allow 
the intentness of his thought to be disturbed. If he loses 
that for an instant, the whole vision vanishes. But he had 
advantages over the man using the astral current, in that he 
sees his figures life-size, as though he were close to them, 
and may also to some extent shift his point of view if he 
wishes. Instances of this kind of sight among untrained 
people are naturally rarer than the other, since it requires 
greater mental control. 

TRANCE, AND ASTRAL VISIT. 

There is, however, another and still more efficient variety 
of this sight, whicn would present somewhat different symp- 
toms to the observer. If your seer fell into a trance, so that 
his physical consciousness was for the time unavailable, and 
it was only after his return that he could describe what he 
had seen — then you have probably an example of this other 



CLAIRVOYANCE IN SPACE. 5 

type of clairvoyance in which the information is gained by 
an astral visit. Instead of seeing from a distance or sending 
a messenger, the man simply goes and sees for himself, 
which is in many ways much the most satisfactory way. In 
this case he will describe himself as standing among the 
actors in his scene, hearing what they say as well as seeing 
what they do, able to move about freely as he wishes. Man- 
ifestly this is a greater achievement and altogether a more 
efficient faculty, for the man who possesses it fully can see 
and study at leisure all the other inhabitants of the astral 
plane, so that the great world of nature-spirits lies open be- 
fore him, and he may converse at will with them, and even 
with some of the lower devas or angels. Wherever he goes, 
he goes in full consciousness, with full power of investiga- 
tion. True, it has its own special dangers for the un- 
trained seer, and they are greater than those of either of the 
other methods; yet it is the most satisfactory form of clair- 
voyance open to him, for the immensely superior variety 
which we shall next consider is not available except for spe- 
cially trained students. 

This last method, which is so much the best and highest, 
consists simply of using the mental body instead of the 
astral vehicle, which naturally requires much greater devel- 
opment. In this body the man travels just as in the other 
case, but without any of the dangers which beset the path 
of the astral visitor, and with the enormous advantages 
which the possession of the higher faculties of the mental 
plane gives in the way of additional sight and wider knowl- 
edge. In his travels he sees so much more and has so much 
greater opportunities chiefly because he has the capacity of 
entering upon all the glory and beauty of the higher land of 
bliss, so that for him heaven is always open, not as a far- 
away vision, but as an ever-present reality in which he is 
living and moving at will. 

We see, therefore, that, besides the magical method first 
mentioned, we have four types of clairvoyance — that by an 
astral telescope, that dependent upon the projection of a 
thought-form, that involving an astral visit, and that which 
needs the use of the mental body. The man who possesses 
either of these latter has obviously many and great advan- 
tages at his disposal, even besides those already enumer- 
ated. Not only can he visit without trouble or expense all 
the beautiful and famous places of the earth, but if he hap- 
pens to be a scholar, think what it must mean to him that he 



6 CLAIRVOYANCE IN SPACE. 

has access to all the libraries of the world! What must it 
be for the scientifically-minded man to see taking place be- 
fore his eyes so many of the processes of the secret chem- 
istry of nature, or for the philosopher to have revealed to 
him so much more than ever before of the working of the 
great mysteries of life and death. To him those who are 
gone from this plane are dead no longer, but living and with- 
in reach for a long time to come; for him many of the con- 
ceptions of religion are no longer matters of faith, but of 
knowledge. Above all, he can join the army of invisible 
helpers, and really be of use on a large scale. Certainly it 
has its dangers also, especially for the untrained; dangers 
from evil entities of various kinds, which may terrify or in- 
jure those who allow themselves to lose the courage to face 
them boldly; danger of deception of all sorts, of misconceiv- 
ing and misinterpreting what is seen; greatest of all, the 
danger of becoming conceited about the thing and of think- 
ing it impossible to make a mistake. But a little common- 
sense and a little experience should protect a man against 
these. 

It must not be forgotten that the man who acquires these 
powers under the guidance of a qualified teacher will be 
bound by certain restrictions. Briefly, these will be that 
there shall be no prying, no selfish use of the power, and no 
displaying of phenomena. That is to say, the same consider- 
ations of honor and good feeling which would govern the ac- 
tions of a gentleman upon this plane are expected to apply 
upon the astral and mental planes also; that the pupil is 
never under any circumstances to use the power which his 
additional knowledge gives him in order to promote his own 
worldly advantage, or indeed in connection with gain in any 
way, and never to give what is called in Spiritualistic circles 
"a test" — that is, to do anything which will incontestably 
prove to skeptics on the physical plane that he possesses 
what to them would appear to be an abnormal power. With 
regard to this latter proviso people often say "Why should 
he not? It would be so easy to convince and confute the 
skeptic, and it would do him good!" Such critics lose sight 
of the fact that, in the first place, none of those who know 
anything want to confute or convince skeptics, or indeed 
ever trouble themselves about the skeptic's attitude in the 
slightest degree one way or the other; and in the second, 
they fail to understand how much better it is for that skeptic 



CLAIRVOYANCE IN SPACE. 7 

that he should gradually grow into an intellectual apprecia- 
tion of the facts of nature, instead of being suddenly intro. 
duced to them by a knock-down blow, as it were. 

CRYSTAL GAZING, ETC. 

So far we have been considering what these powers would 
be to him who possessed them fully, and had been trained to 
use them. But the majority of cases with which an investi- 
gator of the subject would come into contact would naturally 
fall very far short of these. He may meet with a few in- 
stances of intentional clairvoyance, when the seer definitely 
sets himself to discover a certain fact, and succeeds to a 
greater or less extent. But he will find far more who see 
unintentionally and spasmodically without any idea before- 
hand when the faculty will manifest itself. Another class, 
standing between these two, is that of those who intention- 
ally put themselves in the way of seeing something, but do 
not in the least know what it will be, nor have any control 
over the sight when the visions have begun. They may be 
said to be psychic Micawbers, who put themselves into a re- 
ceptive condition, and simply wait for something to turn up, 
The commonest variety of these is the crystal-gazer. Some- 
times, but comparatively rarely, he is able to direct his vis- 
ion in his crystal as he wishes; but the majority of such 
gazers just form a fortuitous astral tube and see whatever 
happens to present itself at the end of it. The crystal is for 
them simply a focus from which their clairvoyant line starts, 
and is not really a necessity at all, though they usually think 
that they could not do anything without it. 

Any sort of polished surface may be employed. I have 
heard of a mirror being used, or a glass ball, or a bottle of 
water, and it may be recollected that Lane describes the use 
of ink for this purpose in his introduction to the "Arabian 
Nights." A drop of blood is used among the Maoris in New 
Zealand, and I have even heard of a saucer of charcoal being 
employed. Mr. Andrew Lang in his "Dreams and Ghosts" 
gives us a very good example of the purposeless kind of vis- 
ion most frequently seen in this way. He says: "I had given 
a glass ball to a young lady, Miss Baillie, who had scarcely 
any success with it. She loaned it to Miss Leslie, who saw 
a large square old-fashioned red sofa covered with muslin, 
which she found in the next country-house she visited. Miss 
Baillie's brother, a young athlete, laughed at these experi- 



8 CLAIRVOYANCE IN SPACE. 

ments, took the ball into the study, and came back looking 
'gey gash.' He admitted that he had seen a vision — some- 
body he knew, under a lamp. He would discover during the 
week whether he saw right or not. This was at 5:30 on a 
Sunday afternoon. 

"On Tuesday Mr. Baillie was at a dance in a town some 
forty miles from his home, and met a Miss Preston. 'On 
Sunday,' he said, 'about half-past five you were sitting under 
a standard lamp in a dress I never saw you wear, a blue 
blouse with lace over the shoulders, pouring out tea for a 
man in blue serge, whose back was towards me, so that I 
only saw the tip of his moustache.' 'Why, the blinds must 
have been up!' said Miss Preston. 'I was at Dulby,' said Mr. 
Baillie, and he undeniably was." 

This is quite a typical case of crystal-gazing — the picture 
correct in every detail, you see, and yet absolutely unimport- 
ant and bearing no apparent signification of any sort to 
either party, except that it served to prove to Mr. Baillie that 
there was something in crystal-gazing. But it is sometimes 
exactly in this apparently aimless, accidental sort of way 
that the first gleam of a higher vision comes to a person. 
Sometimes it is because the physical body is temporarily 
weakened by illness, so that for the moment its insistent fac- 
ulties are not so much in evidence, and so the others which 
are, usually hidden are able to show through. Sometimes 
it is an effort from the outside which for a moment makes a 
person sensitive to what normally would not be able to im- 
press him. We have a very good example of this in Dr. 
Bushnell's work, "Nature and the Supernatural." 

The story runs that a certain Captain Yonnt had a twice- 
repeated dream, in which he very clearly saw a party of emi- 
grants perishing from cold and hunger at a spot in the moun- 
tains, the scenery of which was strongly impressed upon his 
mind. On describing it in the morning to an old hunter, the 
latter recognized the scenery at once; and this fact so pro- 
foundly impressed Captain Yonnt that he forthwith set off 
to find the place, being persuaded that the emigrants were 
really there, according to his dream. All proved to be ex- 
actly as he had seen it, and he was enabled to save the lives 
of the people. It would seem probable that some helper, ob- 
serving the forlorn condition of the emigrant party, took the 
nearest impressible and otherwise suitable person (who hap- 
pened to be the Captain) to the spot in the astral body, and 



CLAIRVOYANCE IN SPACE. 9 

aroused him sufficiently to fix the scene firmly in his mem- 
ory. 

Sometimes when two people are in very close sympathy, 
we find that a bond exists between them which enables one 
of them to impress the other in this way at some great cri- 
sis or in some serious need. I remember a case told in the 
proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research about an 
English general who was seriously wounded in one of the 
battles in the Indian mutiny, and supposed himself to be dy- 
ing. As he was being borne off the field, he said to one of 
the officers near him, "Take this ring off my finger, and send 
it to my wife," and the officers promised him to do so. His 
wife at this particular moment had just lain down in bed, but 
was still wide awake when she saw the whole scene as in a 
vision, and heard her husband make the request above de- 
scribed. It was only some days later that she learnt that 
her husband had really been seriously wounded at the as- 
sault upon Mooltan, and that he had actually made the re- 
quest about the ring as she seemed to hear it in the vision. 
In this instance obviously it was the intimate sympathy be- 
tween husband and wife which made the rapport possible, 
and then the general's earnest thought of his wife acting 
upon a mind already so closely attuned to his conveyed the 
picture to her, so that she saw and heard practically as though 
she had been present in the flesh. Probably he may have 
definitely wished that she were with him, or at any rate that 
he could see her before his death. So strong a thought as 
this does not, however, seem to be indispensable, for there 
are cases in which clairvoyance has been produced, and the 
necessary link supplied, by a thought which was not at all of 
that nature, and not even apparently connected with any 
definite wish. A case illustrating this is to be found in the 
proceedings of the Psychical Research Society, Vol. II, p. 160: 

"Mrs. Broughton awoke one night in 1844 and roused her 
husband, telling him that something dreadful had happened 
in France. He begged her to go to sleep again, and not 
trouble him. She assured him that she was not asleep when 
she saw what she insisted on telling him. First, a carriage 
accident — which she did not actually see, but what she saw 
was the result — a broken carriage, a crowd collected, a figure 
gently raised and carried into the nearest house, then a fig- 
ure lying on a bed, which she then recognized as the Duke of 
Orleans. Gradually friends collecting round the bed, among 
them several members of the French royal family; the queen, 



10 CLAIRVOYANCE IN SPACE. 

then the king, all silently and tearfully watching the evi- 
dently dying duke. One man (she could see his back, but 
did not know who he was) was a doctor. He stood bending 
over the duke, feeling his pulse, with his watch in the other 
hand. And then all passed away, and she saw no more. As 
soon as it was daylight she wrote down in her journal all 
that she had seen. It was before the days of the electric tel- 
egraph, and two or more days passed before the papers an- 
nounced the death of the Duke of Orleans. Visiting Paris a 
short time afterwards, she saw and recognized the place of 
the accident and received the explanation of her impression. 
The doctor who attended the dying duke was an old friend of 
hers, and as he watched by the bed his mind had been con- 
stantly occupied with her and her family." 

Evidently in this case the link was formed by the doctor's 
frequent thought about Mrs. Broughton, yet he clearly had 
no especial wish that she should see what he was doing at 
the time. Evidently also, the clairvoyance was of the "astral 
telescope" type, as is shown by the fixity of her point of view 
— which, be it observed, was not the doctor's point of view 
sympathetically transferred (as it might easily have been) 
since she sees his back without recognizing him. 

MEANINGLESS VISIONS. 

There is a large class of clairvoyant visions which have no 
traceable cause, which are apparently quite meaningless, 
and have no recognizable relation to any events known to 
the seer. To this class belong many of the landscapes seen 
by some people just before they fall asleep. The scenes ap- 
pear to be selected entirely at haphazard, just as though one 
seized a physical telescope and turned it vaguely upon the 
landscape without looking first to see at what it was pointed. 
Sometimes what are seen are not landscapes but faces, or 
clouds of color. One of the best descriptions of this sort of 
scene that I know is given by Mr. W. T. Stead in his "Real 
Ghost Stories," p. 65: 

"I got into bed, but was not able to sleep. I shut my eyes 
and waited for sleep to come; instead of sleep, however, 
there came to me a succession of curiously vivid clairvoyant 
pictures. There was no light in the room and it was per- 
fectly dark; I had my eyes shut also. But notwithstanding 
the darkness I suddenly was conscious of looking at a scene 
of singular beauty. It was as if I saw a living miniature 



CLAIRVOYANCE IN SPACE. 11 

about the size of a magic-lantern slide. At this moment I 
can recall the scene as if I saw it again. It was a seaside 
piece. The moon was shining upon the water, which rippled 
slowly on to the beach. Right before me a long mole ran out 
into the water. On either side of the mole irregular rocks 
stood up above the sea-level. On the shore stood several 
houses, square and rude, which resembled nothing that I had 
ever seen in house architecture. No one was stirring, but the 
moon was there and the sea and the gleam of the moonlight 
on the rippling waters, just as if I had been looking on the 
actual scene. . . .1 was wide awake, and at the same time that 
I saw the scene I distinctly heard the dropping of the rain 
outside the window. Then suddenly, without any apparent 
object or reason, the scene changed. The moonlit sea van- 
ished, and in its place I was looking right into the interior of 
a reading-room. It seemed as if it had been used as a school- 
room in the daytime, and was employed as a reading-room in 
the evening. I remember seeing one reader hold up a maga- 
zine or book in his hand and laugh. It was not a picture — 
it was there. The scene was just as if you were looking 
through an opera-glass; you saw the play of the muscles, the 
gleaming of the eye, every movement of the unknown per- 
sons in the unnamed place into which- you were gazing. I 
saw all that without opening my eyes, nor did my eyes have 
anything to do with it. You see such things as these as it 
were with another sense which is more inside your head 
than in your eyes. This was a very poor and paltry experi- 
ence, but it enabled me to understand better how it is that 
clairvoyants see than any amount of disquisition. The pic- 
tures were apropos of nothing; they had been suggested by 
nothing I had been reading or talking- of; they simply came 
as if I had been able to look through a glass at what was oc- 
curring somewhere else in the world. I had my peep, and 
then it passed, nor have I had a recurrence of a similar expe- 
rience." 

This seems as absolutely casual as the glimpse one gets 
through a gap in the hedge when one is driving along a road; 
yet it had its value for Mr. Stead, for it gave him that one 
touch of personal experience which is worth so much to the 
investigator. How this direct evidence may be systematic- 
ally obtained will be the subject of our fourth lecture on 
Clairvoyance; but short of undertaking the personal develop- 
ment which will give us first-hand experience, very much 



12 CLAIRVOYANCE IN SPACE. 

may be learnt from the literature of the subject. I have my- 
self presented the Theosophical theory of clairvoyance in a 
treatise on the matter, an epitome of which I am giving in 
these lectures. To that book I would refer those who wish 
for further detail, as they will find in it all that I have now 
said, and much more. From it also they may get the names 
of other books in which collections of illustrations can be 
found; and in this way they may study the subject through 
the eyes of those who have investigated it, and may acquire 
some idea of the great mass of evidence that lies within their 
reach. 

In describing to you to-night these various kinds of clair- 
voyance I have mentioned nothing of which I have not my- 
self seen instances; and what I have seen you may see, if you 
are willing to take the trouble which I took. There is no 
mystery as to the methods either of investigation or of self- 
development; they are fully and clearly described in the The- 
osophical literature, and all that is necessary is the resolu* 
tion to make the effort. Few things, surely, can be more in. 
teresting than a study which opens up to us so wide a field, 
which gives us so far grander and truer a conception of this 
beautiful world in which the Divine Power has placed us in 
order that through the lessons to be learnt here we may 
qualify ourselves for the glorious future which He has des- 
tined for us all. 



Clairvoyance in Time. 



A Lecture Delivered Before a Chicago Audience, by 

C. W. Leadbeater, the Great Psychic, 

of London, England. 



VISIONS OF THE REMOTE PAST— THE CONSCIOUS- 
NESS OF THE LOGOS— DIFFICULTY OF EXPRESSING 
RECORDS— PSYCHOMETRIC DELINEATIONS— FORE- 
SEEING WHAT HAS NOT HAPPENED— TWO METH- 
ODS OF PREVISION— ANOTHER KIND OF PREVISION. 

We examined last week the question of clairvoyance in 
space, and considered the various ways in which it is possi- 
ble for a man to see what is taking place at a distance. To- 
night we have another problem — that of trying to understand 
how it is possible for a man to see what happened long ago 
in the past, or what will happen in the future. In this case 
I may again repeat what I said last week, that there is no 
question at all that this can be done, and has been done 
times without number. The authenticated cases of what is 
called "second sight" among the Highlanders of Scotland 
are in themselves quite sufficient to furnish evidence to con- 
vince the most skeptical. Once more, as with mesmerism, 
with apparitions, with Spiritualism, I am not speaking for 
those who are still ignorant of the facts of the case and 
therefore do not yet know that these things happen, but for 
those who wish to know how they are done. Those who are 
unfamiliar with the facts should study the literature of the 
subject, which is a very considerable one. 

VISIONS OF THE REMOTE PAST. 

Let us divide our subject into two parts which naturally 

13 



14 CLAIRVOYANCE IN TIME. 

occur as one thinks of it, and take up separately the power 
of looking back and the power of looking forward. We shall 
find that both these powers are possessed by different people 
in very varying degrees, ranging from the man who has both 
faculties fully at his command, down to one who only occa- 
sionally gets involuntary and very imperfect glimpses or 
reflections of the scenes of other days. Take first the case 
of a detailed vision of the remote past; how is it possible 
that this can be obtained? Broadly speaking, it is possible 
because there is such a thing as memory of Nature — a record 
of every occurrence made automatically as it takes place. 
Nothing can happen that does not indelibly impress itself, 
and the record which it leaves can be read forever after by 
the man who learns how this is done. Where and how is the 
impression made, you will say? In order to understand 
something of that, we shall have to try to carry our thoughts 
very high indeed, for we must raise them towards the con- 
sciousness of Him who made the system, and make an effort 
to image to ourselves how its events will be likely to present 
themselves to Him. His mind is far above our imperfect 
comprehension, yet we can reason upwards towards it to a 
certain limited extent. It is found, as I have said before, 
that it is possible for man to develop within himself the con- 
sciousness of higher levels, and though of course the highest 
of these is infinitely below the Divine consciousness, yet it is 
obvious that it must at least be nearer to it than the entirely 
undeveloped consciousness. So that if we note the line 
along which this exalted consciousness differs from that of 
the physical plane, we shall at least be looking upward 
toward the Divine; and by carrying on the same idea to the 
utmost limit of our mental capacity we shall form a concep- 
tion of His consciousness which will be not inaccurate as 
far as it goes, though naturally hopelessly inadequate. What- 
ever we can imagine along that line of development, all that, 
and infinitely more, He must be. All religions tell us that 
the Deity is omnipresent; in our Theosophical study we 
reach the very same conclusion, though by quite a different 
line. 

Those who have examined the illustrations of the higher 
bodies of man which I have given in my new book on the 
subject will recollect that, as the man developes, his vehicles 
not only improve in color and luminosity, but also grow in 
size. The aura, the luminous colored mist surrounding the 
physical body of man, may be seen by clairvoyant sight at 



CLAIRVOYANCE IN TIME. 15 

various levels, because it contains matter of different de- 
grees of density, so that whether a man be using the sight of 
his astral body, his mental body, or even his causal body, 
there will be something in it for him to see. But all the ex- 
perience gained through these lower vehicles is all the while 
being stored up. by the man himself, who is thereby steadily 
developing qualities and increasing his consciousness ; he is, 
as it were, a reservoir of force, and more and more energy is 
being stored up within him. To retain this, and to give it 
due expression, he_ eventually needs a larger causal body, 
and so it comes that the highly-evolved man, as seen by the 
clairvoyant, is readily recognizable by this feature as well as 
by increasing splendor in light and color. This is by no 
means a new idea to students of these matters, for it may be 
found in the Oriental books. It is stated in Buddhist litera- 
ture that the aura of the Buddha had a very unusual exten- 
sion, and that its influence might be felt at a great distance 
from his physical body. We know that if we come into the 
presence of a strongly magnetic person we at once feel his 
influence, and this is in reality nothing but the vibration sent 
out from his higher vehicles. There are some people with 
whom we dislike to come into close contact, and others to 
whom we feel it a blessing to be near, and this again is be- 
cause we sense their vibrations, though often without know- 
ing it. In the case of the evolved man, we absolutely enter 
his aura when we approach his bodily presence, and so we 
are strongly influenced and brought for the time into har- 
mony with his vibrations. We have only to extend this idea 
to understand how a great Adept may shower blessing upon 
a whole neighborhood merely by his presence, and how a still 
greater one may include the entire world itself within his 
aura; and from this we may gradually lead our minds up to 
the conception that there is a Being so exalted as to compre- 
hend within Himself the whole of our solar system. And 
we should remember that, enormous as this seems to us, it 
is but as the tiniest drop in the vast ocean of space. 

So of the Logos (who has in Him all the capacities and 
qualities with which we can possibly endow the highest God 
we can imagine) it is literally true, as was said of old, that 
"of Him and through Him and to Him are all things," and "in 
Him we live and move and have our being." I was once told 
in India by a Muhammadan scholar that this was the true 
meaning of the daily cry of the muezzin from his minaret, as 
he calls the faithful to prayer — "La illah il allah," which is 



16 CLAIRVOYANCE IN TIME. 

commonly translated, "There is no God but God." The state- 
ment made by this learned man was that the true translation 
should be rather, "There is nothing but God"; and if that be 
so, we have here a very beautiful expression from an unex- 
pected quarter of the eternal truth that all His system is a 
manifestation of Him, and that in all its worlds there can be 
nothing that is not He. 

THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE LOGOS. 

Now if this be so, it is clear that whatever happens within 
our system happens absolutely within the consciousness of 
its Logcs, and so we at once see that the true record must 
be its memory. Furthermore, it is obvious that, on whatever 
plane that wondrous memory exists, it cannot but be far 
above anything that we know; consequently, whatever records 
we may find ourselves able to read must be only a reflection 
of that great dominant fact, mirrored in the denser media of 
the lower planes On the astral plane it is at once evident 
that this is so — that what we are dealing with is only a re- 
flection of a reflection,, and an exceedingly imperfect one, for 
such records as can be reached there are fragmentary in the 
extreme, and often seriously distorted. The medieval al- 
chemists often employed water as a symbol of astral matter, 
and it certainly is a remarkably apt one. Prom the surface 
of still water we may get a clear reflection of the surround- 
ing objects, just as from a mirror; but at the best it is only a 
two-dimensional representation of three-dimensional things, 
and therefore it differs in all its qualities, except color, from 
that which it represents and is always reversed as well. 

But suppose the surface of the water is ruffled by the wind, 
what do we find then? A reflection still, certainly, but so 
broken up and distorted as to be quite useless or even mis- 
leading as a guide to the shape and real appearance of the 
objects reflected. Here and there for a moment we might 
happen to get a clear picture of some tiny part of the scene 
— of a single leaf from a tree, for example; but it would need 
long labor and considerable knowledge of natural laws to 
build up anything like a true conception of the whole obect 
by putting together even a large number of such isolated 
fragments of an image of it. 

Perhaps such reflections are more often seen than people 
realize, for much that is taken for meaningless vision or 
dream is actually a glimpse of a record of the past. But the 
untrained clairvoyant can do but little with such a glimpse 



CLAIRVOYANCE IN TIME. 1 7 

even when he gets it; he is usually quite unable to relate it 
to what occurred before or after it, or to account for any- 
thing extraordinary which may appear in it. The trained man 
who sees a higher reflection on the mental plane is able to 
deal very differently with his picture; he can follow the 
drama connected with it backwards or forwards to any ex- 
tent that may seem desirable, and can trace out with equal 
ease the causes which led up to it or the results which it in 
its turn will produce. The record there is full and accurate, 
and cannot be mistaken. Even there there is still a differ- 
ence between different observers — not that it would be possi- 
ble at that level to see wrongly, but that a certain personal 
equation enters into the transference of the memory to this 
physical plane. Our observations in this world have pre- 
cisely similar limitations. If a dozen people look at the 
same scene together, no two of them will give exactly the 
same description of it afterwards. Each will seize upon 
what interests him the most; the botanist will describe the 
trees and plants very fully, the geologist will scarcely notice 
the trees, but will carefully note the type of the soil and the 
age of the rocks; the farmer will note the quality of the soil 
from another point of view, while the artist will ignore all 
these points, but will have a keen eye for bits of color or for 
beauties of form, and will probably bring away a better 
grasp of the scene as a whole than any of the others. 

DIFFICULTY IN EXPRESSING RECORDS. 

In exactly the same way, though many observers may see 
simultaneously the same record on the mental plane, their, 
accounts of it on the physical plane may sometimes be dis- 
proportionate, each attaching most importance to what ap- 
peals most to him individually. It is in the nature of things 
impossible that any account given down here of a vision or 
experience on the mental plane can be complete, since nine- 
tenths of what is seen and felt there cannot be expressed by 
physical words at all; and since all expression must there- 
fore be partial, there is obviously some possibility of selec* 
tion as to the part expressed. Still, allowing for these slight 
and unaccountable divergences, we find in practice that ac- 
counts from the mental plane agree, and so by long-con- 
tinued experiment and verification we learn that we can de« 
pend upon the records at this level as correct. There still 
remains, however, the impossibility of fully expressing them 
in words. The difficulty is analogous to that which a painter 



18 CLAIRVOYANCE IN TIME. 

finds in putting before us a landscape. The most perfect 
picture is simply a very ingenious attempt to make upon 
only one of our five senses, by means of lines and colors on a 
flat surface, an impression similar to that which would have 
been made if we had actually had before us the scene de- 
picted. The picture itself really shows us but little, and it 
is the brain which from its previous experience supplies 
what is missing. Thus if we show a picture to a savage or 
to an animal, in many cases he is quite unable to under- 
stand what it means. If he has no previous experience, if he 
has never seen anything resembling the subject of the pic- 
ture, it suggests but little to him. 

The clairvoyant labors under just such difficulties, but to 
a far greater degree, in his efforts to describe in the terms 
of a three-dimensional world the facts of one which is built 
on a wider plan — which has an extension in a direction in- 
comprehensible to the physical brain. If you try to study 
along the lines of the fourth dimension you will understand 
what I mean, and you will see how from that point of view 
the limitations which we call time and space are so much 
modified that they have practically ceased to exist. It is 
evident from the study of the highest consciousness in man, 
that in the Divine consciousness this record must be some- 
thing very much more than memory; for clearly to Him the 
past, present and future cannot hold at all the same relation 
as they do to our sight; they must all exist side by side, they 
must be simultaneously present. 

Thirty years ago I met with a very curious little book 
which tried to explain this scientifically from the orthodox 
religious point of view. Its arguments were so ingenious 
that I should like to reproduce the outline of them for you. 
It began by the undeniable statement that we see everything 
by light either emitted or reflected by it, and that that light 
travels through space at a certain recognized rate — 186,000 
miles per second. As far as anything in our own world is 
concerned, this may be considered as practically instantane- 
ous, but when we come to deal with interplanetary distances 
we have to take the speed of light into account. For exam- 
ple, it takes eight minutes and a quarter for it to travel to us 
from the sun, so that when we look at the solar orb we see 
it by means of a ray of light which left it more than eight 
minutes ago. 

From this follows a very curious result. The ray of light 
by which we see the sun can obviously report to us only the 



CLAIRVOYANCE IN TIME. 19 

state of affairs which existed in that luminary when it start- 
ed on its journey, and would not be in the least affected by 
anything that happened there after it left; so that we really 
see the sun not as he is, but as he was eight minutes ago. 
That is to say that if anything of importance took place in 
the sun, such as the formation of a new sun-spot, an astron- 
omer who is watching the orb through his telescope at the 
time would be quite unaware of the incident while it was 
happening, since the ray of light bearing the news would not 
reach him until more than eight minutes later. The differ- 
ence is more striking when we consider the fixed stars, be- 
cause in their case the distance is so enormously greater. 
The pole star, for example, is believed to be so far off that 
light, traveling at the inconceivable speed above mentioned, 
takes a little more than fifty years to reach our eyes; and 
from that follows the strange but inevitable inference that we 
see the pole star not as and where it is at the present mo- 
ment, but as and where it was fifty years ago. If to-morrow 
some cosmic catastrophe were to shatter the pole star into 
fragments, we should still see it peacefully shining in the 
sky all the rest of our lives; our children would grow up to 
middle age and gather their children about them in turn be- 
fore the news of that tremendous accident reached any ter- 
restrial eye. In the same way there are other stars so far 
distant that light takes thousands of years to move from 
them to us, and with reference to their condition our infor- 
mation is therefore thousands of years behind time. 

Suppose we were able to place a man at the distance of 
186,000 miles from the earth, and yet endow him with the 
wonderful faculty of being able from that distance to see 
what was happening here as clearly as though he were still 
close beside us. It is evident that a man so placed would 
see everything a second after the time when it really hap- 
pened, and so at the present moment he would be seeing 
what happened a second ago. Double the distance, and he 
would be two seconds behind time. Remove him to the 
distance of the sun, and he would look down and watch you 
doing, not what you are doing now, but what you were doing 
eight minutes ago. Carry him away to the pole star, and he 
would see passing before his eyes the events of fifty years 
ago; he would be watching the childish gambols of those 
who at the very same moment were really middle-aged men. 
Marvelous as this is, it is literally and scientifically true, and 
cannot be denied. The same idea is taken up and worked 



2 CLAIRVOYANCE IN TIME. 

out in Carnille Flammarion's book, "Stories in Infinity." Our 
little treatise went on to argue that God, being omnipresent, 
must be at all these points of view at once, and also at every 
intermediate point, and that He must certainly possess such 
a power of sight as we have postulated. Consequently, to 
His sight everything that has ever happened must be hap- 
pening new — not as a memory, but~as a living fact. Now all 
this is materialistic enough, and on the plane of purely phys- 
ical science, and we may therefore be assured that it is not 
the way in which the memory of the Logos acts; yet it is 
neatly worked out and absolutely incontrovertible, and it is. 
not without its use, since it gives us a glimpse of some possi- 
bilities which otherwise might not occur to us. It does sug- 
gest to us that an infinite power must possess faculties which 
are utterly beyond our grasp, which would produce results 
far surpassing our wildest efforts of imagination. 

PSYCHOMETRIC DELINEATIONS. 

But, it may be asked, how is it possible, amid the bewilder- 
ing confusion of these records of the past, to find any par- 
ticular picture when it is wanted ? As a matter of fact, the 
untrained clairvoyant usually cannot do so without some spe- 
cial link to put him in touch with the subject required. Psy- 
chometry is an instance in point, and it is quite probable 
that our ordinary memory is really only another present- 
ment of the same idea. It seems as though there were a 
sort of magnetic attachment or affinity between any particle 
of matter and the record which contains its history — an af- 
finity which enables it to act as a kind of conductor between 
that record and the faculties of any one who can read it, 
For example, I once brought from Stonehenge a tiny fragment 
of stone, not larger than a pin's head, and on putting this 
into an envelope and handing it to a psychometer who had 
no idea what it was, she at once began to describe that won- 
derful ruin and the desolate country surrounding it, and then 
went on to picture what were evidently scenes from its early 
history, showing that that infinitesimal fragment had been 
sufficient to put her into communication with the records 
connected with the spot from which it came. It would seem 
as though the very walls of our rooms were phonographs, 
which can be made to reproduce to a person trained to under- 
stand them, not only the sounds but also the pictures which 
have been impressed upon them. There is a separate liters 
ature of this subject of psychometry, and it is well worth our 



CLAIRVOYANCE IN TIME. 21 

study. The best book that I know upon it is Professor Den- 
ton's "Soul of Things"; and there is also a valuable work by 
Dr. Rodes Buchanan. 

It is quite possible that the human memory may be a phe- 
nomenon of the same nature. The old idea was that all the 
information possessed by a man was simply stored in the 
cells of his physical brain, but it is very evident that that 
is not so, because the man has been repeatedly shown to be 
capable of consciousness and memory when away from his 
physical brain altogether; though undoubtedly for work on 
the physical plane the brain is necessary. Still the storage 
theory seems unlikely; it may be that the scenes through 
which we pass in the course of our life act in the same man- 
ner upon the particles of our mental body as did the history 
of Stonehenge upon that particle of stone — that they estab- 
lish a connection by means of which our mind is put en rap- 
port with that particular portion of the record, and so we re- 
member what we have seen. 

The student who develops this power of psychometry has 
a very interesting field of research before him. Not only 
can he review at his leisure all the history with which we are 
acquainted, correcting as he examines it the many errors 
and misconceptions which have crept into the accounts 
handed down to us; he can also range at will over the whole 
story of the world from the very beginning, watching the un- 
folding of the intellect in man through prehistoric ages, and 
contemplating the glory of mighty civilizations whose very 
traces have long ago been lost in the mists of time. Some- 
times an even closer sympathy with the past is possible for 
the reader of the records, for he may learn to look back upon 
his own part in the earlier history of the world; he may 
awaken the memory of his previous lives, and thus identify 
himself once more with long-dead personalities. Probably 
this happens much oftener than we think; many a casual un- 
identified clairvoyant vision, many a dream of strange, in- 
comprehensible surroundings, may be nothing but a half-rec- 
ollection of days so very long ago that the world has greatly 
changed since then. Many among us now are approaching 
the borderland which divides the physical senses from the 
astral and we catch glimpses from the other side without 
recognizing them for what they really are. There are many 
who possess something of this power of psychometry with- 
out being at all aware of it, and they are constantly receiv- 
ing impressions from letters, from articles of furniture, and 



22 CLAIRVOYANCE IN TIME. 

from surroundings generally, even though they do not real* 
ize the source from which these impressions come. 

FORESEEING WHAT HAS NOT HAPPENED. 

Even though the average man cannot see exactly how it is 
done, he may yet readily understand and be prepared to ac- 
cept the possibility of this impression of past events upon 
surrounding obects, guided thereto by such partial analogies 
as the phonograph and the photographic camera. But when 
we come to face the problem of the second part of our 
subject, there is for him a much greater difficulty. That 
which has passed may conceivably have left an impression; 
but how can that which has not yet happened be foreseen? 
There is no question at all that this does occur; the authenti- 
cated accounts of second sight among the Highlanders of 
Scotland alone would suffice to demonstrate the fact, even 
if there were no other evidence. But there is very much 
other evidence; and no one who has examined the question 
can doubt that the soul or ego in man possesses a certain 
power of prevision at his own level. Sometimes he is able 
to impress what he knows clearly upon his physical brain; 
sometimes he succeeds only very partially in that effort and 
probably there are many occasions when he fails altogether 
to produce his impression, and so in our waking conscious- 
ness we know nothing about it, or at most feel only a vague 
uneasiness or depression. 

If the events foreseen were always of great importance, 
one might suppose that an extraordinary stimulus had en- 
abled him for that occasion only to make a clear impression 
upon his lower personality. No doubt that is the explana- 
tion of many of the cases in which death or grave disaster is 
foreseen, but there are large numbers of instances on record 
to which it does not seem to apply, since the events are fre- 
quently trivial and unimportant. Let me give you an in- 
stance. A man who had no belief in the occult was fore- 
warned by a Highland seer of the approaching death of a 
neighbor. The prophecy was given with considerable wealth 
of detail, including a full description of the funeral, with the 
names of the four pall-bearers and others who would be 
present. The auditor seems to have laughed at the whole 
story and promptly forgotten it, but the death of his neigh- 
bor at the time foretold recalled the warning to his mind, 
and he determined to falsify part of the prediction at any 



CLAIRVOYANCE IN TIME. 2 3 

rate by being one of the pall-bearers himself. He succeeded 
in getting matters arranged as he wished, but just as the 
funeral was about to start he was called away from his post 
by some small matter which detained him only a minute or 
two. As he came hurrying back he saw with surprise that 
the procession had started without him, and that the predic- 
tion had been exactly fulfilled, for the four pall-bearers were 
those who had been indicated in the vision. 

Now this was a very trifling matter, which could have 
been of no possible importance to anybody; yet it was fore- 
told accurately weeks before it occurred, and though a man 
makes a determined effort to alter the arrangement indi 
cated, he fails to affect it in the least. We can hardly sup 
pose that any soul made a violent endeavor to bring through 
into his. lower consciousness such valueless details as these 
What may however have happened is that the ego of the 
neighbor was anxious to warn his physical manifestation of 
its approaching death, but found himself unable to affect hie 
brain directly. In such a dilemma he may have impressed 
the nearest sensitive person (the seer), and in throwing the 
picture into the mind of that person he may have supplied all 
the details of the scene, as he naturally would do. But how 
is this prevision obtained? 

TWO METHODS OF PREVISION. 

There are two methods by which it may be gained. One 
of them is clearly comprehensible to us on this physical 
plane; the other is not so easily explicable, because of the 
limitations of our consciousness. There is no doubt what- 
ever that, just as what is happening now is the result of 
causes set in motion in the past, so what will happen in the 
future will be the result of causes already in operation. 
Even down here we can calculate that if certain actions are 
performed certain effects will follow, but our reckoning is 
constantly liable to be disturbed by the interference of fac- 
tors which we have not been able to take into account. But 
if we raise our consciousness to the mental plane we can see 
very much farther into the results of our actions. In fact, 
it may be said that at that level the effects of all causes at 
present in action are plainly visible — that the future, as it 
would be if no entirely new causes should arise, lies open 
before our gaze New causes of course do arise, because 
man's will is free; but in the case of all ordinary people the 
use which they will make of their freedom can be calculated 
beforehand with considerable accuracy, 



2 4 CLAIRVOYANCE IN TIME. 

Looking down upon man's life from this level of the men- 
tal plane, it seems as though his free will could be exercised 
only at certain crises in his career. He arrives at a point in 
his life where there are obviously two or three alternative 
courses open before him; he is absolutely free to choose 
which of them he pleases. But when he has chosen, he has 
to go through with it and take the consequences; having en- 
tered upon a particular path he may, in many cases, be 
forced to go on for a very long way before he has any oppor- 
tunity to turn aside. His position is somewhat like that of 
the driver of a train; when he comes to a junction he may 
conceivably have the points set either this way or that, and 
so can pass on to whichever line he pleases, but when he 
has passed on to one of them he is compelled to continue 
along the line which he has selected until he reaches an- 
other set of points (or switches, as I think they are called 
in this country) where again an opportunity of choice is of- 
fered to him. 

In looking down from the mental plane, these new points 
of departure would be clearly visible, and all the results of 
each choice would lie open before us, certain to be worked 
out even to the smallest detail. The only point which 
would remain uncertain would be which of them he woulc 
choose. We should, in fact, have not one but several futures 
mapped out before our eyes, without necessarily being able 
to determine which of them would materialize itself into ac- 
complished fact. If we knew the man thoroughly well, we 
might feel almost certain what his choice would be, but of 
course that knowledge would in no sense be a compelling 
force. If we have a pet dog, we know fairly well what he 
will do under certain circumstances, but that does not in the 
least make him do it. It is quite possible to foresee without 
compelling and so it may well be that the Deity can absolute- 
ly foresee all human action, and yet that He in no way pre- 
scribes what that action shall be. He looks down upon us 
from a level so much higher, that all possible causes must 
lie open and clear before His sight. At however infinitely 
lower a level, the soul of man also is in its essence divine, 
and it shares this god-like faculty of prevision to a very con- 
siderable extent; it can see a vast number of causes which 
are concealed from mortal eye, and so it is sometimes ca- 
pable of impressing a definite forecast upon its physical 
brain. This method of prophecy is at any rate quite intelli- 



CLAIRVOYANCE IN TIME. 2 5 

gible, for it is merely an expansion of processes of induction 
with which we are familiar on the physical plane. 

ANOTHER KIND OF PREVISION. 

There is, however, another and altogether more exalted 
kind of prevision which is by no means so readily compre- 
hensible. When a man raises his consciousness to the 
plane above the mental — that which in Theosophical litera- 
ture is called the buddhic — no such elaborate process of con- 
scious calculation is necessary, for in some manner which 
down here is totally inexplicable, the past, the present and 
the future are there all existing simultaneously. One can 
only accept this fact, for its cause lies in the "faculty of the 
plane, and the way in which this higher faculty works is nat- 
urally quite incomprehensible to the physical brain. Yet 
now and then we may meet with a hint that seems to bring 
us a trifle nearer to a dim possibility of comprehension. 
One such hint was given by Sir Oliver Lodge in an address 
to the British Association at Cardiff. He said. 

"A luminous and helpful idea is that time is but a relative 
mode of regarding things; we progress through phenomena 
at a certain definite pace, and this subjective advance we in- 
terpret in an objective manner, as if events moved necessa- 
rily in this order and at this precise rate. But this may be 
only one way of regarding them. The events may in some 
sense be in existence always, and it may be we who are ar- 
riving at them, not they which are happening. The analogy 
of a traveler in a railway train is useful; if he could never 
leave the train nor alter its pace he would probably con- 
sider the landscapes as necessarily successive, and be un- 
able to conceive their co-existence we perceive therefore, 

a possible fourth-dimensional aspect about time, the inexor- 
ableness of whose flow may be a natural part of our present 
limitations. And if we once grasp the idea that past and 
future may be actually existing, we can recognize that they 
may have a controlling influence on all present action, and 
the two together may constitute the 'higher plane' or totality 
of things after which, as it seems to me, we are compelled to 
seek, in connection with the directing of form or determin- 
ism, and the action of living beings consciously directed to 
a definite and preconceived end." 

Time is not in reality the fourth dimension at all; yet to 
look at it from that point of view is some slight help towards 
grasping the ungraspable. Suppose that we hold a wooden 



2 6 CLAIRVOYANCE IN TIME. 

cone at right angles to a sheet of paper, and slowly push it 
through, point first. A microbe living on the surface of 
that sheet of paper, and having no power of conceiving any- 
thing outside of that surface, could not only never see the 
cone as a whole, but he could form no sort of a conception 
of such a body at all. All that he would see would be the 
sudden appearance of a tiny circle, which would gradually 
and mysteriously grow larger and larger until it vanished 
from his world as suddenly and incomprehensibly as it had 
come into it. 

Thus what were in reality a series of sections of the cone 
would appear to him to be successive stages in the life of a 
circle, and it would be impossible for him to grasp the idea 
that these successive stages could be seen simultaneously. 
Yet it is easy enough for us, looking down upon the transac- 
tion from another dimension, to see that the microbe is simply 
under a delusion arising from its own limitations, and that the 
cone exists as a whole all the while. Our own delusion as to 
past, present and future is possibly not dissimilar, and the 
view that is gained of any sequence of events from the bud- 
dhic plane corresponds to the view of the cone as a whole; 
and some glimpse or reflection of that higher consciousness, 
coming through into our lower world would constitute for 
us a perfect fragment of prevision. But without experienc- 
ing it, it is impossible fully to understand it. How that ex« 
perience may -be gained is the subject which we shall exam- 
ine in our next lecture. 



How to Develop Clairvoyance. 



A Lecture Delivered Before a Chicago Audience, by 

C. W. Leadbeater, the Great Psychic, 

of London, England, 



INJURIOUS METHODS— THE USE OF DRUGS— DANCE 
OF ECSTASY— SELF HYPNOTIZATION— TENNYSON'S 
EXPERIENCE— REGULATING THE BREATHING— MES- 
MERIC TRANCE— CURATIVE MESMERISM— DESIR- 
ABLE METHODS— MENTAL AND MORAL DEVELOP- 
MENT—CONCENTRATION — MEDITATION— CONTEM- 
PLATION. 

When a man has studied the subject of clairvoyance suffi- 
ciently to realize that the claims made on its behalf are true, 
his next enquiry usually is, "How can I gain this power for 
myself? If this faculty be latent in every man, as you say, 
how can I so develop myself as to bring it into action, and so 
have direct access to all this knowledge of which you tell 
me?" In reply we can assure him that this thing can be 
done, and that it has been done. There are even many ways 
in which the faculty may be gained, though most of them 
are unsafe and eminently undesirable, and there is only one 
that can be thoroughly and unreservedly recommended to 
all men alike. But that we may understand the subject, and 
see where lie the dangers that have to be avoided, let us 
consider exactly what it is that has to be done. 

In the case of all cultured people belonging to the higher 
races of the world, the faculties of the astral body are al- 
ready fully developed, as I have explained in earlier lectures. 
But we are not in the least in the habit of using them; they 
have slowly grown up within us during the ages of our evolu- 

27 



2 8 HOW CLAIRVOYANCE IS DEVELOPED. 

tion, but they have come to us so gradually that we have not 
as yet realized our powers, and they are still to a great ex- 
tent untried weapons in our hands. The physical faculties, 
to which we are thoroughly accustomed, overshadow these 
others and hide their very existence, just as the nearer light 
of the sun hides from our eyes the light of the far-distant 
stars. So that there are two things to be done if we wish to 
enter into this part of our heritage as evolved human beings; 
we must keep our too-insistent physical faculties out of the 
way for the time, and we must habituate ourselves to the 
employment of these others, which are as yet unfamiliar to 
us. 

INJURIOUS METHODS. 

The first step, then, is to get the physical senses out of 
the way for the time. There are many ways of doing this, 
but broadly they all range themselves under two heads — one 
comprising methods by which they are forced out of the 
way by temporary violent suppression, and the other includ- 
ing methods much slower but infinitely surer, by which we 
ourselves gain permanent control over them. Most of the 
methods of violent suppression are injurious to the physical 
body, to a greater or less extent, and they all have certain 
undesirable characteristics in common. One of those is 
that they leave the man in a passive condition, able per- 
haps to use his higher senses, but with very little choice as 
to how he shall employ them, and to a large extent unde- 
fended against any unpleasant or evil influence which he 
may happen to encounter. Another characteristic is that 
any power gained by these methods can at best be only tem- 
porary. Many of them confer it only during the limited 
period of their action, and even the best of them can only 
dower the man with certain faculties during this one phys- 
ical life. In the East, where they have studied these mat- 
ters for so many centuries, they divide methods of develop- 
ment into two classes, just as I have done, and they call 
them by the names laukika and lokothra, the first being the 
"worldly" or temporary method, any results gained by which 
will inhere only in the personality, and therefore be avail- 
able only for this present physical life, while whatever is 
obtained by the second process is gained by the ego, the 
soul, the true man, and so is a permanent possession for 
evermore, carried over from one earthly life to another. For 
most methods of the former class little training is required, 



HOW CLAIRVOYANCE IS DEVELOPED. 2 9 

and when there is training it is of the vehicles only, and so at 
the best it can affect only this present set of vehicles, and 
when the man returns into incarnation with a fresh set all 
his trouble will be lost; whereas by the second method it is 
the soul itself which is trained in the control of its vehicles, 
and naturally it can apply the power and the knowledge thus 
gained to its new vehicles in the next life. Let me mention 
to you first some of the undesirable ways in which clairvoy- 
ance is developed in various countries. 

THE USE OF DRUGS. 

Among non-Aryan tribes in India it is often obtaintd by 
the use of drugs — bhang, hasheesh and others of the same 
kind. These stupefy the physical body something as an- 
aesthetics do, and thus the man in his astral vehicle is set 
free as he would be in sleep, but with far less possibility of 
being awakened. Before taking the drug, the man has set 
his mind strongly on the endeavor to train his astral senses 
into activity, and so as soon as he is free he tries to use his 
faculties, and with practice he succeeds to some extent. 
When he awakens his physical body, he remembers more or 
less of his visions, and tries to interpret them, and in that 
way he often obtains a great reputation for clairvoyance 
and prevision. Sometimes while in his trance he may be 
spoken through by some dead man, just as any other me- 
dium may be. There are others who obtain the same condi- 
tion by inhaling stupefying fumes, usually produced by the 
burning of a mixture of drugs. It is probable that the clair- 
voyance of the pythonesses of old was often of this type. 
It is stated in the case of one of the most celebrated of those 
oracles of ancient days, the priestess sat always upon a 
tripod exactly over a crack in the rock, out of which vapor 
ascended. After breathing this vapor for a time, she be- 
came entranced, and some one then spoke through her or- 
gans in the ordinary way so familiar to the visitors to se- 
ances. It is not difficult for us to see how undesirable both 
these methods are from the point of view of real develop- 
ment. 

DANCE OF ECSTASY. 

Probably most of us have heard of the dancing dervishes, 
one part of whose religion consists in this curious dance of 
ecstasy, in which they whirl round and round in a kind of 
frenzy until vertigo seizes them, and they eventually fall in- 
sensible to the ground. In that trance, worked up as they 



30 HOW CLAIRVOYANCE IS DEVELOPED. 

are by religious fervor, they frequently have most extraor- 
dinary visions, and are able to some extent to experience 
and remember lower astral conditions. I have seen some- 
thing of this, and also of the practices of the Obeah or Voo- 
doo votaries among the negroes ; .but these latter are usually 
connected with magical ceremonies, loathsome, indecent, 
horrible, such as none of us would dream of touching for 
any purpose, whatever results might be promised to us. Yet 
they certainly do produce results under favorable conditions, 
though not such results as any of us could possibly wish to 
obtain. Indeed, none of the methods mentioned so far would 
at all commend themselves to us, though I have heard of 
Europeans who have experimented with the Oriental drugs. 

SELF HYPNOTIZATION. 

Nevertheless we also have undesirable methods in the 
West — methods of self hypnotization which should be care- 
fully avoided by all who wish to develop in purity and safety. 
A person may be told to gaze for some time at a bright spot, 
until paralysis of some of the brain centres supervenes, and 
in that way he is cast into a condition of perfect passivity, 
in which it is possible that the lower astral senses may come 
into a measure of activity. Naturally he has no power of se^ 
lection in receiving under such circumstances; he must sub- 
mit himself to whatever comes in his way, good or bad — and 
on the whole it is much more likely to be bad than good. 
Sometimes the same general result is obtained by the recita- 
tion of certain formulae, the repetition of which over and 
over again deadens the mental faculty almost as the gazing 
at a metal disc does. It may be remembered that the poet 
Tennyson tells us that he was able by the recitation of his 
own name many times in rapid succession to pass into an- 
other condition of consciousness. The account is given in 
a letter in the poet's handwriting, which is dated Faringford, 
Freshwater, Isle of Wight, May 7, 1874. It was written to a 
gentleman who communicated to him certain strange expe- 
riences he had when passing from under the effect of anaes- 
thetics. Tennyson says: 

" r ENNYSON'S EXPERIENCE. 

"I have never had any revelations through anaesthetics; 
but a kind of waking trance (this for lack of a better name) 
I have frequently had, quite up from boyhood, when I have 
been all alone. This has often come upon me through re- 



HOW CLAIRVOYANCE IS DEVELOPED. 31 

peating my own name to myself silently, till all at once out 
of the intensity of the consciousness of individuality, the in- 
dividuality itself seemed to dissolve and fade away into 
boundless being; and this not a confused state, but the clear- 
est of the clearest, the surest of the surest, utterly beyond 
words, where death was an almost laughable impossibility, 
the loss of personality (if so it were) seeming no extinction, 
but the only true life. I am ashamed of my feeble descrip- 
tion. Have I not said the state is utterly beyond words? 
This is the most emphatic declaration that the spirit of the 
writer is capable of transferring itself into another state of 
existence, is not only real, clear, simple, but that it is also in- 
finite in vision and eternal in duration." 

Now here is undoubtedly a touch of the higher life; no one 
who has practical experience of realities can fail to recognize 
the description as far as it goes, even though the poet just 
stops short on the brink of something so infinitely grander. 
He seems to have held himself more positive than do many 
people who dabble in these matters without the necessary in- 
struction or knowledge, and so he gained a valuable cer- 
tainty of the existence of the soul apart from the body; yet 
even his method cannot be commended as good or really 
safe. 

REGULATING THE BREATHING. 

We are sometimes told that such a faculty can be devel- 
oped by means of exercises which regulate the breathing, 
and that this plan is one largely adopted and recommended 
in India. It is true that a type of clairvoyance may be devel- 
oped along these lines, but too often at the cost of ruin both 
physical and mental. Many attempts of this sort have been 
made here in the United States; I know it personally, be- 
cause on my previous visit many who had ruined their con- 
stitutions and in some cases brought themselves to the verge 
of insanity came to me to know how they could be cured. 
Some have succeeded in opening astral vision sufficiently to 
feel themselves perpetually haunted; some have not even 
reached that point, yet have wrecked their physical health 
or weakened their minds so that they are in utter despair; 
some one or two declare that such practice has been benefi- 
cial to them. It is true that such exercises are employed in 
India by the Hatha Yogis — those who attempt to attain de- 
velopment rather by physical means than by inner growth 
of the mental and the spiritual. But even among them such 



32 HOW CLAIRVOYANCE IS DEVELOPED. 

practices are used only under the direct orders of responsible 
teachers, who watch the effect upon the pupil of what is pre- 
scribed, and will at once stop him if the exercises prove un- 
suitable for him. But for people who know nothing at all of 
the subject to attempt such thing indiscriminately is most 
unwise and dangerous, for practices which are useful for one 
man may very well be disastrous for another. They may 
suit one man in fifty, but they are extremely likely not to suit 
the rest, and myself I should advise every one to abstain 
from them unless directed to try them by a competent 
teacher who really understands what they are intend'ed to 
achieve. You may be the one whom they will suit, but the 
probabilities are against it, for there are far more failures 
than successes. It is so fatally easy to do a great deal of 
harm in this way, that to experiment vaguely is rather like 
going into a chemist's shop and taking down drugs at ran- 
dom ; you might happen to hit upon exactly what you needed, 
but also you might not, and the latter is many times more 
probable. 

MESMERIC TRANCE. 

Another method by which clairvoyance may be developed 
is by mesmerism — that is to say, if a person be thrown by 
another into a mesmeric trance it is possible that in that 
trance he may see astrally. The mesmerizer entirely domi- 
nates his will, and the physical faculties are thrown utterly 
into abeyance. That leaves the field open, and the mesmer- 
ist can at the same time stimulate the astral senses by pour- 
ing vitality into the astral body. Good results have been 
produced in this way, but it requires. a very unusual combina- 
tion of circumstances, an almost superhuman development of 
purity in thought and intention both in the operator and the 
subject to make the experiment a safe one. The mesmerist 
gains great influence over his subject — a far greater power 
than is generally known; and it may be unconsciously exer- 
cised. Any quality of heart or mind possessed by the mes- 
merist is very readily transferred to the subject, so if he be 
not entirely pure, we see at once that avenues of danger 
open up before us. To be thrown into a trance is to give up 
your individuality, and that is never a good thing in psychic 
experiments; but beyond and above that element of undesir- 
ability there is real danger unless you have the highest purity 
of thought, word and deed in your operator; and how rarely 
that is to be found you know as well as I do. I should never 



HOW CLAIRVOYANCE IS DEVELOPED. 33 

myself submit to this process ; I should never advise it to any 
one else. 

CURATIVE MESMERISM. 

I say nothing against the practice of curative mesmerism 
by those who understand it; that is a totally different mat- 
ter, for in that it is unnecessary to produce the trance condi- 
tion at all. It is perfectly possible to relieve pain, to remove 
disease, or to pour vitality into a man by magnetic passes, 
without "putting him to sleep" at all. To this there can be 
no possible objection; yet the man who tries to do even this 
much would do well to acquaint himself thoroughly with the 
literature of the subject, for there must always remain a 
certain element of danger in playing, even with the noblest 
intentions, with forces which you do not understand, which 
to you are still abnormal forces. None of these are plans of 
clairvoyant development which can be unreservedly recom- 
mended for trial by every one. 

DESIRABLE METHODS. 

What, then, it may be asked, are the desirable methods, 
since so many are undesirable? Broadly, those which in- 
stead of suppressing the physical body by force, train the 
soul to control it. The surest and safest way of all is to put 
oneself into the hands of a competent teacher, and practice 
only what he advises. But where is the qualified teacher to 
be found? Not, assuredly, among any who advertise them- 
selves as teachers; not among those who take money for 
their instruction, and offer to sell the mysteries of the uni- 
verse for so many shillings or so many dollars. Knowledge 
can be gained now where it has always been available — at 
the hands of those who are adepts in this great science of 
the soul, the fringe of which we are beginning to touch in our 
deepest studies. There has always been a great Brotherhood 
of the men who know, and they have always been ready to 
teach their lore to the right man, for it is for that very pur- 
pose that they have taken the trouble to acquire it, in order 
that they may be able to guide and help. How can we reach 
them? You cannot reach them in the physical body, and 
you might not even know them if it should happen to you to 
see them. But they can reach you, and assuredly they will 
reach you when they see you to be fit for the work of helping 
the world. Their one great interest is the furthering of evo- 
lution, the helping of humanity; they need men devoted to 



34 HOW CLAIRVOYANCE IS DEVELOPED. 

this work, and they are ever watching for them; so none 
need fear that he can be overlooked if he is ready for that 
work. They will never gratify mere curiosity; they will 
give no aid to the man who wishes to gain powers for himself 
alone; but when a man has shown by long and careful train- 
ing of himself, and by using for helpfulness all the power 
that he already possesses, that his will is strong enough and 
his heart pure enough to bear his part in the Divine work — 
then he may become conscious of their presence and their 
aid when he least expects it. 

It is true that they founded the Theosophical Society, yet 
membership in the society will not of itself be sufficient to 
bring a man into relationship with them — no, nor even mem- 
bership in that Inner School through which the society offers 
training to its more earnest members. It is true that from 
the ranks of the society men have been chosen to come into 
closer relation with them ; but none could guarantee that as 
a result of becoming a member, for it rests with them alone, 
for they see further into the hearts of men than we. But al- 
ways be sure of this, you whose hearts are yearning for the 
higher life, for something greater than this lower world can 
give, that they never overlook one honest effort, but always 
recognize it by giving through their pupils such teaching 
and such help as the man at his stage is ready for. 

In the meantime, while you are trying in every way to de- 
velope yourselves along the path of progress, there is much 
that you can do, if you wish, to bring this power of clairvoy- 
ance nearer within your reach. Remember that it is not in 
itself a sign of great development; it is only one of the signs, 
for man has to advance along many lines simultaneously be- 
fore he can reach his goal of perfection. See how highly de- 
veloped is the intellect in the great scientific man; yet per- 
haps he may have but little yet of the wonderful force which 
devotion gives. See the splendid devotion of the great saint 
of some church or religion; yet in spite of all that progress 
along one line he may have but little yet of the divine power 
of the intellect. Each needs what the other has; each will 
have to acquire the faculty of the other before he will be 
perfect. So it is evident that at present we are unequally 
developed; some have more in one direction, and some in an- 
other, according to the line along which each has worked 
most in past lives. So if you particularly long for devotion 
in your character, by striving in that direction now you may 
attain much of it even in this life, and may assuredly make it 



HOW CLAIRVOYANCE IS DEVELOPED. 35 

a leading quality in your next life. So with intellect, so with 
every quality; so also with this faculty of clairvoyance. If 
you think it well to throw your strength into work along 
this line, you may do very much towards bringing these la- 
tent faculties into action. I am not speaking here of a vague 
possibility, but of a definite fact, for some of our own mem- 
bers in this society set themselves years ago to try to train 
the soul along the path of permanent progress, and of those 
who persevered without faltering almost every one has even 
already found some definite result. Some have won their 
faculties fully, others only partially as yet, but in all cases 
good has come from their efforts to take themselves in hand 
and control their minds and emotions. 

MENTAL AND MORAL DEVELOPMENT. 

If you have this desire for higher sight, take yourself in 
hand first in the same way; make sure first of the mental 
and moral development, lest you should succeed in your ef- 
forts, and gain your powers. For to possess them without 
having first acquired those other qualifications would be in- 
deed a curse and not a blessing, for you .would then misuse 
them, and your last state would indeed be worse than the 
first. If you consider that you have made sure of yourself, 
and can trust yourself under all possible circumstances to do 
the right for right's sake, even against your earthly seeming 
interest, always to choose the utterly unselfish course of 
action, and to forget yourself in your love for the world, 
then there are at least two methods which will lead you 
towards clairvoyance safely, and can in no way do you harm, 
even though you should not succeed in your object. The 
first of these, though perfectly harmless and even useful, is 
not suited for every one; but the second is of universal appli- 
cation, and I have myself known both of them to be suc- 
cessful. 

This first method is a purely intellectual one, a study to 
which I have already on several occasions had to refer, the 
study of the Fourth Dimension of space. The physical brain 
has never been accustomed to act at all along those lines, 
and so it feels itself unable to attack such a problem. But 
the brain, like any other part of the physical organism, can 
be trained by persistent, gradual, careful effort to feats 
which appeared originally quite beyond its reach, and so it 
can be induced to understand and conceive clearly the forms 
of a world unlike its own. The chief apostle of the fourth 



3 6 HOW CLAIRVOYANCE IS DEVELOPED. 

dimension is Mr. C. H. Hinton, of Washington, D. C. He is 
not a member of our society, but he has done many of its 
members an excellent piece of service in writing so clearly 
and luminously on his wonderful subject. In his books he 
tells us that he has himself succeeded in developing this 
power of higher conception in the physical brain, and several 
of our own members have followed in his footsteps. One of 
these has developed astral sight simply by steadily raising 
the capacity of the physical brain until it contained the pos- 
sibility of grasping astral form, and thus awakening the la- 
tent astral faculty proper. It is simply a question of extend- 
ing the power of receptivity until it includes the astral 
matter. But I suppose that out of a score of men who took 
up this study, not more than one would succeed as well and 
as quickly as that; but at any rate the study is a most fasci- 
nating one for those who have a mathematical turn of mind, 
and where it does not bring increased faculty to see, it must 
at least bring wider comprehension and a broader outlook 
over the world, and this is no mean result, even if no other be 
attained. Short of absolute astral sight, it is the only meth- 
od of which I know by which a clear comprehension can be 
gained of the appearance of astral objects, and thus a defi- 
nite idea of what the astral life really is. 

If that line of effort commends itself only to the few, our 
second method is of universal application. It also is not 
easy, but its practice cannot but be of the greatest use to 
the man. That is its great and crowning advantage; it leads 
a man towards these powers which he so ardently desires; 
but the rate at which he can move along that road depends 
upon the degree of his previous development in that partic- 
ular way in other lines, and therefore no one can guarantee 
him a certain result in a certain time; yet while he is work- 
ing his way onward, every step which he takes is so far an 
improvement, and even though he should work for the whole 
of his life without winning astral sight, he would neverthe- 
less be mentally and morally and even physically the better 
for having tried. This is what in various religions is called 
the method of meditation. For the purpose of our examina- 
tion of it I shall divide it into three successive steps: concen- 
tration, meditation and contemplation, and I will explain 
what I mean by each of these three terms. 

But remember always that to attain success, this effort 
must be only one side of a general development, and that it 
is absolutely prerequisite for the man who would learn its- 



HOW CLAIRVOYANCE IS DEVELOPED. 37 

secrets to live a pure and altruistic life. There is no secret 
about the rules of the greater progress; the Steps of the 
Path of Holiness have been known to the world for ages, and 
in my little book, "Invisible Helpers," I have given a list of 
them according to the teaching of the Buddha, with the char- 
acteristics which mark each of its stages. There is no diffi- 
culty in knowing what to do ; the difficulty is in carrying out 
the directions which all religions have given. 

CONCENTRATION. 

The first step necessary towards the attainment of the 
higher clairvoyance is concentration — not to gaze at a bright 
spot until you have no mind left, but to acquire such control 
over your mind that you can do with it what you will, and 
fix it exactly where you want to hold it for as long a period 
as you choose. This is not an easy task, it is one of the 
most difficult and arduous known to man; but it can be 
done, because it has been done — not once, but hundreds of 
times, by those whose will is strong and immovable. There 
may be some among us who have never thought how much 
beyond our control our minds usually are. Stop yourself 
suddenly when you are walking along the street, or when 
you are riding in the car, and see what you are thinking, and 
why. Try to follow the thought back to its genesis, and you 
will probably be surprised to find how many desultory 
thoughts have wandered through your brain during the pre- 
vious five minutes, just dropping in and dropping out again, 
and leaving almost no impression. You will gradually begin 
to realize that in truth all these are not your thoughts at all, 
but simply cast-off fragments of other people's thoughts. 
The fact is that thought is a force, and every exertion of it 
leaves an impression behind. A strong thought about some 
other person goes to him, a strong thought of self clings 
about the thinker; but so many thoughts are not by any 
means strong or especially pointed in any direction, and so 
the forms which they create are vaguely-floating and evanes- 
cent. While they last they are capable of entering into any 
mind that happens to come their way, and so it comes that 
as we walk along the road we leave a trail of feeble thought 
behind us, and the next man who passes that way finds these 
valueless fragments intruding themselves upon his con- 
sciousness. They drift into his mind, unless it is already 
occupied with something definite, and in the majority of 
cases they just drift out again, having made only the most 



38 HOW CLAIRVOYANCE IS DEVELOPED. 

trifling impression upon his brain; but here and there he en- 
counters one which interests or pleases him, and then he 
takes that up and turns it over in his mind, so that it departs 
from him somewhat strengthened by the addition of a little 
of his mind-force to it. He has made it his own thought for 
a moment, and so has colored it with his personality. Every 
time we enter a room we step into the midst of a crowd of 
thoughts, good, bad or indifferent as the case may be, but 
the great mass of them just a dull, purposeless fog which is 
hardly worth calling thought at all. 

If we wish to develop any higher faculty, we must begin 
by gaining control over this mind of ours. We must give it 
some work to do, instead of just letting it play about as it 
will, drawing into itself all these thoughts which are not 
ours, which we really do not want at all. It must be not our 
master but our servant before we can take the first 
step along the line of the true trained clairvoyance, for this 
is the instrument which we shall have to use, and it must be 
at our command and fully under our control. 

This concentration is one of the hardest things for the or- 
dinary man to do, because he has had no practice at it, and 
indeed has scarcely realized that it needed to be done. 
Think what it would be if your hand were as little under 
your control as your mind is, if it did not obey your com- 
mand, but started aside from what you wished it to do. You 
would feel that you had paralysis, and that your hand was 
useless. But if you cannot control your mind, that is dan- 
gerously like a mental paralysis; you must practice with it 
until you have it in hand and can use it as you wish. For- 
tunately concentration can be practiced all day long, in the 
common affairs of every-day life. Whatever you are doing, 
do it thoroughly, and keep your mind on it. If you are writ- 
ing a letter, think of your letter and of nothing else until it 
is finished; it will be all the better written for such care. If 
you are reading a book, fix your mind on it and try to grasp 
the author's full meaning. Know always what you are 
thinking about, and why; keep your mind at intelligent 
work, and do not leave it time to be so idle, for it is in those 
idle moments that all evil comes. 

Even now you can concentrate very perfectly when your 
interest is sufficiently keenly excited. Then your mind is so 
entirely absorbed that you hardly hear what is said to you or 
see what passes round you. There is a story told in the 
East about some skeptical courtiers, who declined to be- 



HOW CLAIRVOYANCE IS DEVELOPED. 3 9 

lieve that an ascetic could ever be so occupied with his med- 
itation as to be unaware that an army passed close by him as 
he sat under his tree wrapt in thought. . The king, who was 
present, assured them that he would prove to them the pos- 
sibility of this, and proceeded to do so in a truly Oriental and 
autocratic way. He ordered that some large water-jars 
should be brought and filled to the brim. Then he instructed 
the courtiers each to take one and carry it; and his command 
was that they should walk, carrying this water, through the 
principal streets of the city. But they were to be surrounded 
by his guards with drawn swords, and if one of them 
spilled one single drop of his water, that unfortunate was to 
be instantly beheaded then and there. The courtiers started 
on their journey filled with terror; but they all got safely 
back again, and the king smilingly greeted them with a re- 
quest to tell him all the incidents of their walk, and describe 
the persons whom they had met. Not one of them could 
mention even one person that they had seen, for all agreed 
that they had been so entirely occupied with the one idea of 
watching the brimming jars that they had noticed nothing 
else of any sort. "So, gentleman," rejoined the king, "you 
see that when there is sufficient interest concentration is 
possible." 

MEDITATION. 

When you have attained concentration such as that, not 
under the stress of the fear of instant death, but by the exer- 
tion of your will, then you may profitably try the next stage 
of effort. I do not say that it will be easy; on the contrary, 
it is very difficult; but it can be done, for many of us have 
had to do it. When your mind is thus an instrument, try 
what we call meditation. Choose a certain fixed time for 
yourself, when you can be undisturbed; the early morning is 
in many ways the best, if that can be managed. It is not al- 
ways an easy time for us now, for we nave in modern civiliza- 
tion hopelessly disarranged our day, so that noon is no longer 
its middle point, as it should be. Now we lie in bed long 
after the sun has risen, and then stay up, injuring our eyes 
with artificial light long after he has set at night. But 
choose your time, and let it be the same time each day, and 
let no day pass without your regular effort. You know if you 
are trying any sort of physical exercise for training pur- 
poses how much more effective it is to do a little regularly 
than to make a violent effort one day, and then do nothing 



40 HOW CLAIRVOYANCE IS DEVELOPED. 

for a week. So in this matter it is the regularity that is im- 
portant. 

Sit down comfortably where you will not be disturbed, and 
turn your mind, with all its newly-developed power of con- 
centration, upon some selected subject demanding high and 
useful thought. We in our Theosophical studies have no 
lack of such subjects, combining deepest interest with great- 
est profits. If you prefer it, you can take some moral qual- 
ity, as is advised by the Catholic church when it prescribes 
this exercise. In that case, you would turn the quality over 
in your mind, see how it was an essential quality in the Di- 
vine order, how it was manifested in Nature about you, how 
it had been shown forth by great men of old, how you your- 
self could manifest it in your daily life, how (perhaps) you 
have failed to display it in the past, and so on. Such medi- 
tation upon a high moral quality is a very good exercise in 
many ways, for it not only trains the mind, but keeps the 
good thought constantly before you. But it needs to be pre- 
ceded generally by thought upon concrete subjects, and when 
those are easy for you, you can usefully take up the more ab- 
stract ideas. 

CONTEMPLATION. 

When this has become an established habit with you, with 
which nothing is allowed to interfere; when you can manage 
it fairly well without any feeling of strain or difficulty, and 
without a single wandering thought ever venturing to in- 
trude itself; then you may turn to the third stage of our ef- 
fort — contemplation. But remember that you will not suc- 
ceed with this until you have entirely conquered the mind- 
wandering. For a long time you will find, when you try to 
meditate, that your thoughts are continually going off at a 
tangent, and you do not know it till suddenly you start to 
find how far away they have gone. You must not let this 
dishearten you, for it is the common experience; you must 
simply bring the errant mind back again to its duty, a hun- 
dred or a thousand times if necessary, for the only way to 
succeed is to decline to admit the possibility of failure. But 
when you have at length succeeded, and the mind is defi- 
nitely mastered, then we reach that for which all the rest 
has been but the necessary preparation, good though it has 
also been in itself. 

Instead of turning over a quality in your mind, take the 
highest spiritual ideal that you know. It does not matter 



HOW CLAIRVOYANCE IS DEVELOPED. 41 

what it is, or by what name you call it. A Theosophist would 
most probably take one of those Great Ones to whom we 
have already referred — a member of that great Brotherhood 
of Adepts, whom we call the Masters — especially if he had 
the privilege of having come directly into contact with one of 
them. The Catholic might take the Blessed Virgin, or some 
patron saint; the ordinary Christian would probably take the 
Christ; the Hindu would perhaps choose Krishna, and the 
Buddhist most likely the Lord Buddha himself. Names do 
not matter, for we are dealing with realities now. But it 
must be to you the highest, that which will evoke in you the 
greatest feeling of reverence, love and devotion that you are 
capable of experiencing. In place of your previous medita- 
tion, call up the most vivid mental image that you can make 
of this ideal, and, letting your most intense feeling go out 
towards this highest One, try with all the strength of your 
nature to raise yourself towards Him, to become one with 
Him, to be in and of that glory and beauty. If you will do 
that, if you will thus steadily continue to raise your con- 
sciousness, there will come a time when you will suddenly 
find that you are one with that ideal as you never were be- 
fore, when you realize and understand Him as you never did 
before, for a new and wonderful light has somehow dawned 
for you, and all the world is changed, for now for the first 
time you know what it is to live, all life before seems like 
darkness and death to you as compared with this. 

Then it will all slip away again, and you will return to the 
light of common day — and darkness indeed will appear by 
comparison. But go on working at your contemplation, and 
presently that glorious moment will come again and yet 
again; and each time it will stay with you longer, till there 
comes a period 'vhen that higher life is yours always, no 
longer a flash or a glimpse of paradise, but a steady glow, a 
new and never-ceasing marvel every day of your existence. 
Then for you day and night will be one continuous conscious- 
ness, one beautiful life of happy work for the helping of oth- 
ers; yet this, which seems so indescribable and so unsurpass- 
able, is only the beginning of the entrance into the heritage 
in store for you and for every child of man. Look about you 
with that new and higher sight, and you will see and grasp 
many things which until now you have never even suspected 
— unless, indeed, you have previously familiarized yourself 
with the investigations of your predecessors along this path. 

Continue your efforts, and you will rise higher still, and in 



42 HOW CLAIRVOYANCE IS DEVELOPED. 

due course there will open before your astonished eyes a life 
as much grander than the astral as that is than the physical, 
and once more you will feel that the true life has been un- 
known to you until now; for all the while you are rising 
nearer to the One Life which alone is perfect Truth and per- 
fect Beauty. 

This is a development that must take years, you will say. 
Yes, that is probable, for you are trying to compress into one 
life the evolution which would normally spread itself over 
many; but it is far more than worth the time and the effort. 
No man can say how long it will take in any individual case, 
for that depends upon two things — the amount of crust that 
there is to break through, and the energy and determination 
that is put into the work. I could not promise you that in so 
many years you would certainly succeed ; I can only tell you 
that many have tried before you, and that many have suc- 
ceeded. All the great Masters of Wisdom were once men at 
our own level; as they have risen, so must we rise. Many 
of us in our humbler way have tried also, and have suc- 
ceeded, some more and some less; but none who has tried 
regrets his attempt, for whatever he has gained, be it little 
or much, is gained for all eternity, since it inheres in the 
soul which survives death. Whatever we gain thus we pos- 
sess in full power and consciousness, and have it always at 
our command; for this is no mediumship, no feeble intermit* 
tent trance-quality, but the power of the developed and glori- 
fied life which is to be that of all humanity some day. 

But the man who wishes to try to unfold these faculties 
within himself will be 'very ill-advised if he does not take 
care first of all to have utter purity of heart and soul, for 
that is the first and greatest necessity. If he is to do this, 
and to do it well, he must purify the mental, the astral and 
the physical; he must cast aside his pet vices and his physi- 
cal impurities; he must cease to defile his body with meat, 
with alcohol or tobacco, and try to make himself pure and 
clean all through, on this lower plane as well as on the 
higher ones.. If he does not think it worth giving up petty 
uncleannesses for the higher life, that is exclusively his own 
affair; it was said of old that one could not serve God and 
Mammon simultaneously. I do not say that bad habits on 
the physical plane will prevent him altogether from any psy- 
chic development, but I do very emphatically and distinctly 
say that the man who remains unclean is never free from 
danger, and that to touch holy things with impure hands is 



HOW CLAIRVOYANCE IS DEVELOPED. 43 

to risk a terrible peril. The man who would try for the 
higher must free his mind from worry and from lower cares; 
while doing his duty to the uttermost, he must do it imper- 
sonally and for the right's sake, and leave the result in the 
hands of higher powers. So will he draw round him pure 
and helpful entities as he moves onward, and will himself 
radiate sunlight on those in suffering or in sorrow. So shall 
he remain master of himself, pure and clean and unselfish, 
using his new powers never for a personal end, but ever for 
the advancement and the succor of men his brothers, that 
they also, as they can, may learn to live the wider life, may 
learn to rise from amid the mists of ignorance and selfish- 
ness into the glorious sunlight of the peace of God. 



The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln. 



Evidence Pointed Out Showing that It Was Planned 
and Executed by Jesuit Priests. 



"President Lincoln expressed at the last cabinet meeting 
before his death his assurance that something serious was 
about to happen." — Washington Post, July 6, 1902, on "Proph- 
ecies and Omens." 

Was the "assurance" expressed by President Lincoln a 
mere presentiment or omen? 

The first intimation that came to the ears of Abraham Lin- 
coln that he was to become a victim to the vengeance of the 
Romish priesthood was in October, 1856. Twice in that year 
he defended a Catholic priest, the late Father Chiniquy, of 
St. Anne, Illinois, before a jury, on a false accusation of 
crime. The first trial was in May, 1856, at Urbana, seventy 
miles distant from the home of the accused. Mr. Lincoln 
demolished the testimony of two perjured priests, and his 
client would have been acquitted but for the blunder of al- 
lowing a single Roman Catholic on the jury. 

The case was tried again in October following. The testi- 
mony of a priest named LeBelle, against the character of 
Chiniquy, was of such a nature as to horrify everybody. 
The cross-examination by Mr. Lincoln did much to break the 
force of the direct testimony, but he feared its effect on a 
jury unacquainted with the character of the accused. When 
the court adjourned in the evening Lincoln said to his client: 

"My dear Mr. Chiniquy, though I hope to-morrow to destroy 
the testimony 'of LeBelle, I must concede that I see great 
danger ahead. I feel that the jurymen think you guilty, and 
that you will be condemned to a heavy penalty or to the pen- 
itentiary, though I am sure you are perfectly innocent. It is 

44 



ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 45 

very probable that we shall have to confront LeBelle's sister 
to-morrow, who will confirm the false testimony of her 
brother. Her alleged sickness is doubtless a feint, in order 
that her evidence may come in after that of her brother. 
Perhaps we shall have to meet her testimony as taken before 
some local justice, which will be all the harder to rebut. 
That woman is evidently in the hands of Bishop O'Regan and 
her brother, ready to swear to anything they order her. Noth- 
ing is so difficult to refute as female testimony, particularly 
when the woman is absent from court. The only way to be 
sure of a favorable verdict to-morrow is, that God Almighty 
would take part and show your innocence. Go to Him, for 
He alone can save you." 

These words are recorded by Father Chiniquy in his book, 
"Fifty years in the Church of Rome/' They are perhaps a 
little colored, coming through the medium of a very pious 
and conscientious priest, who was soon to renounce the error 
of Papacy and become a devout Protestant. Sadly did he be- 
take himself to his room, where, through the night, he 
wrestled in prayer. But at 3 o'clock there was a loud 
knocking at his door. Quickly the tearful priest opened it 
and there stood Abraham Lincoln, who said: 

"Cheer up, my dear Chiniquy; I have the perjured priests 
in my hands. Their diabolical plot is known, and if they do 
not fly away before the dawn of day they will surely be 
lynched. Bless the Lord you are saved." 

The next morning the court house could not contain the 
crowd that came to see the result of the trial. The Catholic 
priest, LeBelle, had fled, but there were numerous other rev-. 
erend fathers present, hoping to witness the condemnation of 
the French Canadian priest. Judge David Davis took his 
seat on the bench, and the complainant, Spink, a tool of 
Bishop O'Regan, rose, pale and trembling, to ask to be al- 
lowed to withdraw the prosecution. The motion was of 
course granted, but the miserable priests in attendance were 
then regaled with a most eloquent and scathing speech by 
Lincoln on the rascality of the prosecution and the infamous 
character of the Romish priesthood in general. 

Accepting a fee of only fifty dollars for his services in the 
two trials, Lincoln turned to his client and said : 

"Father Chiniquy, what makes you weep? You ought to 
be the most happy man alive; you have beaten your enemies 
and gained a most glorious victory." 

"Dear Mr. Lincoln," answered the priest, "the joy I should 



46 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

naturally feel for such a victory is turned to grief when I 
think of its consequences to you. Not less than ten or 
twelve Jesuit priests came from Chicago and St. Louis to hear 
my sentence of condemnation. But instead of that you have 
brought the thunders of Heaven on their heads; you have 
made the walls of the court house tremble with your denunci- 
ation of their infamy. They are enraged and I feel that I 
have read your death sentence in their bloody eyes." 

At first Lincoln treated the warning lightly, but afterward 
he said: "I know the Jesuits never forget or forgive; but 
what matters it how or where a man dies, provided it is at 
the post of duty." 

The election of Lincoln to the presidency, four years later 
and again to a second term, was unanimously opposed by the 
Catholic priests. The Church of Rome looked upon the di- 
vision between North and South as her golden opportunity in 
America. She ordered her elder son, the Emperor Louis Na- 
poleon to send an army to Mexico, so as to be read'y to help 
crush the Northern States. She bade the bishops, priests 
and people to vote in opposition to Lincoln. Only one bishop 
dared to flisobey! 

Father Chiniquy had now renounced the Papal creed and 
become a Protestant. At the end of August, 1861, a Roman 
priest whom he had persuaded to renounce Popery, dis* 
closed to him a plot to assassinate the President. Chiniquy 
though it his dutj^ to go and tell him of it. He was received 
with great cordiality by Mr. Lincoln, who said: 

"You see that your friends, the Jesuits, have not killed me 
yet. But they would have done it when I went through Balti- 
more had I not defeated their plans by passing incognito a 
few hours before they expected me. We have proof that the 
company selected and organized to murder me was led by a 
rabid Roman Catholic named Byrne, and that in the gang 
were two disguised priests. I am sorry 1 have so Mttle time 
to see you, but I will not let you go before telling you that a 
few days ago, Prof. Morse told me that when he was in 
Rome, not long ago, he found a formidable conspiracy against 
this country and its institutions. It is evident that it is to 
the intrigues and emissaries of the Pope that we owe, in 
great part, this horrible civil war." 

The next day Chiniquy was received again by the Presi- 
dent. "I want your views," said Lincoln," about a thing that 
is excedingly puzzling to me. A great number of Demo- 



ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 47 

cratic papers have been sent to me lately, containing state- 
ments that I am an apostate Roman Catholic. No priest of 
Rome ever laid his hand on my head. Tell me what is the 
meaning of these falsehoods." 

"IT MEANS YOUR SENTENCE OF DEATH," said Chin- 
iquy, "and I have it from the lips of a converted priest that, 
in order to excite the fanaticism of Roman Catholic mur- 
derers, the priests have invented the story of your being born 
a Catholic and baptized by a priest. An apostate from the 
Church of Rome is an outcast who has no right to live. 
Here is a copy of a decree of Gregory VII, [Hildebrand, 
1073-1085] proclaiming that the killing of an apostate or a 
heretic is not murder. Such is the canon of the church." 

Realizing the imminent danger, Mr. Lincoln said: 

"I repeat to you what I said at Urbana in 1856, when you 
first warned me against the Jesuits. But I will now add that 
I HAVE A PRESENTIMENT that God will call me through 
the hand of an assassin. Let his will be done. I feel more 
and more, it is not against the South alone we are fighting, 
but against the Pope of Rome and his perfidious Jesuits, 
who are the principal rulers of the South. The great ma- 
jority of the Catholic bishops, priests and laymen are rebels 
at heart, and, with few exceptions, they are pro-slavery. I 
understand now why the patriots of France were compelled 
to kill so many priests and monks; THEY WERE ALWAYS 
THE ENEMIES OF LIBERTY." 

Again, in June, 1862, Chiniquy called on the President to 
warn him against impending dangers, but could only shake 
hands with him. It was just after the grand victory of the 
Monitor over the Merrimac, and the conquest of New Orleans 
by Admiral Farragu* and Mr. Lincoln was too busy to grant 
an interview. 

Once more in June, 1864, came Chiniquy to Washington, 
and the President managed to have an interview with him 
by taking him in his carriage to visit the wounded soldiers in 
the hospital. Mr. Lincoln said: 

"This war would never have been possible without the SIN- 
ISTER INFLUENCE OF THE JESUITS. We owe it all to 
Popery. I conceal this from the knowledge of the nation be- 
cause, if the people knew what I do, this would become a re- 
ligious war and assume a tenfold more savage and bloody 
character. If the people could know what Prof. Morse has 
told me of the plots at Rome to destroy this republic, if they 



48 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

could realize that the priests, monks and nuns who land on 
our shores under the pretext of propagating their religion, 
teaching our children, and nursing the sick in our hospitals, 
are only the EMISSARIES OF THE POPE and the other 
despots of Europe, to undermine our institutions and pre- 
pare a reign of anarchy here as they have done in Ireland, in 
Mexico and in Spain, the Protestants both north and south 
would surely unite to exterminate the priests of Rome." 

The President then asked Chiniquy if he had read the let- 
ter of the Pope to Jefferson Davis, and if so, what he thought 
of it. The ex-priest replied: 

"My dear President, that is just what brought me here 
again. That letter is a POISONED ARROW aimed by the 
Pope at you personally. You know how many liberty-loving 
Irish, German and French Catholics have been fighting for 
the Union. To detach these men from the ranks of the 
Northern armies has been the aim of the Jesuits. Secret 
and pressing letters have been addressed from Rome to the 
bishops, ordering them to weaken your armies by detaching 
these men. The bishops answered that they could not do it 
without exposing themselves to death, but they advised the 
Pope to recognize at once the legitimacy of the Southern 
republic, and to take Jeff Davis under his protection by a 
letter which would be read everywhere. By that letter his 
blind slaves understand that you are outraging the God of 
heaven and earth by continuing this bloody war to subdue a 
nation whose legitimacy is recognized by God's vicegerent. 
That letter means that you are not only an apostate whom 
every Catholic HAS A RIGHT TO KILL, but you are a lawless 
brigand whom every Catholic ought to kill. This, my dear 
President, is not a fanciful interpretation of my own; it is 
the unanimous explanation given by a great number of 
priests of Rome with whom I have had occasion to speak on 
this subject. I conjure you, therefore, to protect your own 
precious life." 

The President replied at great length saying: 

"You confirm me in my views of the Pope's letters, and 
Prof. Morse is of the same mind with you. Since the publi- 
cation of that letter there have been many desertions. But 
Gen. Sheridan remains true to his oath of fidelity and is 
worth a whole army by his ability and courage. Gen. Meade 
has gained the battle of Gettysburg, but he was surrounded 
by such heroes as Reynolds, Wadsworth, Slocum, Sickles, 



ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 49 

Hancock, Howard and others, and yet he let the REBEL 
ARMY ESCAPE. When he was to order the pursuit, a 
stranger came to him in haste; that stranger was a disguised 
Jesuit. Aften ten minutes' conversation with him, Meade 
made such arrangements for the pursuit that the enemy es- 
caped almost untouched, with the loss of only two guns. 
The New York draft riots were the work of Bishop Hughes 
"and his emissaries. We have the proofs in hand of that. I 
wrote to Bishop Hughes, telling him that the whole country 
would hold him responsible if he did not stop the riots at 
once. He then gathered the rioters around his palace, 
called them his dear friends, invited them to go back home 
peacefully, and they obeyed. The Pope and his Jesuits have 
ABETTED AND SUPPORTED THE REBELLION from the 
first gunshot at Fort Sumter by the rabid Romanist Beaure- 
gard. They are helping the Roman Catholic Semmes on the 
ocean. I have the proof in hand that Bishop Hughes, whom 
I sent to Rome in the hope that he would induce the Pope to 
urge American Catholics to be true to their oath of allegi- 
ance, and whom I thanked publicly, under the belief that he 
had acted honestly according to his promise to me, is the 
very man who advised the Pope to recognize the Southern 
Confederacy. My ambassadors in Italy, France and Eng- 
land, as well as Prof. Morse, have warned me against the 
plans of the Jesuits. But I see no other safeguard AGAINST 
THOSE MURDERERS than to be always ready to die, as 
Christ advises it. We must all die sooner or later, and it 
makes very little difference to me whether I die by a dagger 
thrust through my breast or from an inflammation of the 
lungs." 

Then, taking his Bible, the President opened and read from 
Deuteronomy iii: 22-28, where God told Moses to go up to the 
top of Pisgah and behold the promised land, for he would not 
be allowed to pass over Jordan. "My dear Father Chiniquy," 
said Lincoln, T have read these strange and beautiful words 
several times in the last five or six weeks, and the more I 
read them the more it seems to me that God has written 
them for me as well as Moses." 

On the 14th of April, 1865, ten months after this last inter- 
view, at ten o'clock in the evening, President Lincoln was 
assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, at Ford's Theatre, and 
at the same hour Lewis Payne attempted to murder William 
H. Seward. Two or three hours before these assassinations 



50 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

occurred a Catholic landlord at St. Joseph, Minn., told Fram 
cis A. Conwell and Horace P. Bennett that Lincoln and Sew- 
ard were assassinated. The two men make affidavit of the 
fact, sworn to September 6 and October 18, 1883. Landlord 
J. H. Linneman, purveyor for the priests in charge of the col- 
lege at that place, refused to swear, but made r, written dec* 
laration October 20, 1883, duly signed, saying that he told 
Mr. Conwell and Mr. Bennett that "he heard this rumor in 
his store from people who came in and out; but he cannot 
remember from whom." That lapse of memory probably 
saved the landlord's life. The priests of St. Joseph were 
cognizant of tie plot to assassinate Lincoln and Seward. 

Mr. Conwell was chaplain of the First Minnesota regi- 
ment. Mr. Bennett was a resident of St. Cloud, eight miles 
distant from St. Joheph. The two men drove up to the vil- 
lage hotel not later than 6:30 p. m. While Mr. Bennett was 
attending to the horses in the barn, Landlord Linneman told 
Mr. Conwell that Lincoln and Seward were assassinated. Al- 
lowing for difference in time between St. Joseph and Wash- 
ington the news of the assassination had apparently reached 
St. Joseph at least two hours before it occurred! 

Early next morning the two men journeyed to St. Cloud, 
arriving there about 8 o'clock. There Mr. Conwell told the 
hotel keeper, Haworth, what he had heard about the assassi- 
nations. He told it also to several other men. None of them 
had heard such news. The nearest railroad station from St. 
Joseph was 40 miles, and the nearest telegraph 80 miles, 

The next day, April 16, Chaplain Conwell started for 
church, where he was to preach. On his way a copy of a 
telegram was handed him announcing the assassination of 
Lincoln and Seward. 

On Monday, April 17, Mr. Conwell addressed the St. Paul 
Press the following paragraph: 

"A STRANGE COINCIDENCE. 

"At 6:30 p. m., Friday last, I was told, as an item of news, 
eight miles west of this place (St. Cloud), that Lincoln and 
Seward had been assassinated." 

This was published, but the fact being discredited by the 
editor, another communication was sent by Mr. Conwell, 
which was printed, as follows: 

"The integrity of history requires that the above coinci- 
dence be established. And if anyone calls it in question, 



ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 51 

then proofs more ample than reared their sanguinary head to 
comfort the traitor will be given." 

Some Spiritualists at that time interpreted the matter as 
a mediumistic foresight. But after seventeen years Father 
Chiniquy procured the affidavits and adduced facts which 
proved that the murder of Abraham Lincoln was planned and 
executed by Jesuit priests. 

Were all the convicted conspirators Roman Catholics? 
General Baker, in his report of the military trial says : 

"I mention, as an exceptional and remarkable fact, that ev- 
ery conspirator in custody, is, by education, a Catholic." 

Atzeroth, Payne and Harold, it is true, asked for Protest- 
ant ministers, when they were to be hanged. But on the 
subsequent trial of John H. Surratt, Louis Weichman testi- 
fied that he was in the habit of going to St. Aloysius church 
with Atzeroth and that there he introduced him to another 
Catholic named Brothy. Booth and Weichman were per- 
verts to Catholicism, and among their companions were 
Payne, Atzeroth and Harold. When Payne, after his assault 
upon Secretary Seward, knocked at Mrs. Surratt's door, it 
was opened by Major Smith, a detective. Being asked his 
business, Payne said he was a laborer, and had come to dig 
Mrs. Surratt's gutter. She being called and asked if she 
knew this man, answered: ''Before God, sir, I do not; I have 
never seen him and did not hire him to dig a gutter for me." 
But it was proved that he was her personal friend, and that 
he had been to her house in company with his friend Booth, 

Had father confessors appeared with Payne, Atzeroth and 
Harold on the scaffold, that would have opened the eyes of 
the American people to clearly see that the ASSASSINA- 
TIONS WERE PLANNED by Jesuit priests. The murderers 
were instructed to conceal their religion. Such is the doc- 
trine of the church. St. Liguori says : 

"It is often more to the glory of God and the good of our 
neighbor to conceal our religious faith, as when we live 
among heretics we can more easily do them good in that 
way; or if, by declaring our religion, we cause disturbance, 
or deaths, or even the wrath of the tyrant." — (Liguori Theo- 
logia, ii:3). 

Dr. Mudd, at whose place Booth stopped in his flight, was 
a Catholic, and so was Garrett, in whose barn Booth was 
killed. 



52 ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

After the murder, Chiniquy came to Washington in dis- 
guise. He found the influence of Rome at the capital was 
almost supreme. The only statesmanwho dared to face the 
influence of Rome was General Baker. But several other 
statesmen confessed that without doubt the Jesuits were at 
the bottom of the plot, and sometimes this, would appear so 
clearly in evidence before the military tribunal that it was 
feared it could not be kept from the public. Mrs. Surratt 
was a Catholic, and her house was the rendezvous of the 
priests. With a little more pressure on the witnesses many 
of the priests would have been compromised. But the civil 
war was hardly over, and the Confederacy, though broken 
down, was still living in millions of hearts; formidable ele- 
ments of discord were still existing, to which the hanging or 
exiling of the guilty priests would give new life. Riots upon 
riots would follow. It was, therefore, concluded to be the 
best policy to punish only those who were publicly and visi- 
bly guilty, so that the verdict might receive the approbation 
of all, without creating new bad feelings. And this, they 
said, was the policy of the late President; for there was 
nothing he so much feared as a war between Protestants and 
Catholics. 

It is evident that a very elaborate plan of escape for the 
murderers had been arranged by the priests of Rome. The 
priest Charles Boucher swears that a few days after the 
murder John H. Surratt was sent to him by Father Lapierre, 
of Montreal; that he kept him concealed in his parsonage 
from the end of April to the end of July; that then he took 
him back to Lapierre, who kept him in his own father's 
house, under the very shadow of the palace of Bishop Bour- 
bet, where he remained until September; that thence he was 
taken in disguise by himself and Lapierre to Quebec. It fur- 
ther appears that he was taken from Quebec to an ocean 
steamer, September 15, by Lapierre, who introduced him as 
McCarty. And who was Lapierre? The canon and confiden- 
tial servant of Bishop Bourbet of Montreal. Lapierre and 
Boucher, who accompanied Surratt in the carriage, were the 
ambassadors and representatives of the Pope. Surratt was 
sent to Rome, where he enlisted as a Zouave under the name 
of Watson. Our government found him out, ,and the Pope 
was forced to give him up. But in so doing the Jesuits man- 
aged to have him escape to Egypt. There he was arrested 
and extradited-. Being brought to Washington and tried, he 
escaped conviction in consequence of the disagreement of 



ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 53 

two or three jurymen who were Catholics. He has since 
died. 

As a further item of evidence of the plot to assassinate 
President Lincoln, I have a letter from an aged correspond- 
ent, dated May 24 1896, in which he says: 

"A few days before the death of Lincoln I read in a Rich* 
mond paper: 'We have a little surprise in store for the 
Yankees.' " 

THAT WAS A SURE WORD OF PROPHECY BASED ON 
A JESUIT PLOT, TO BE EXECUTED ON FRIDAY, APRIL 
14, 1865. WM. HENRY BURR. 

Washington, D. C. 



The Rationale of Apparitions. 

A Lecture Delivered Before a Chicago Audience by 
C. W. Lead beater, the Great Psychic, 
of London, England, 



ABSURD DELUSION— A BIBLE GHOST STORY— VARI- 
OUS MODES OF APPARITIONS— NATURE SPIRITS, 
PHANTOM BIRDS— CHURCHYARD GHOST— ASTRAL 
IMPRESSIONS— THE POLTERGEIST — APPARITIONS 
OF THE LIVING— RETURNING FOR HELP— RETURN- 
ING TO GIVE HELP— FAMILY GHOST. 

I suppose there are many people who, before discussing 
the rationale of apparitions, would ask whetner It was after 
all certain that there were really such things as apparitions 
at all. Not very many years ago few would have thought of 
asking even so much as that, for they would have dismissed 
the whole question contemptuously without a second 
thought. But man has grown a little wiser since then, and 
public opinion has changed somewhat on these points. I be- 
lieve that this diffusion of more accurate knowledge on such 
subjects is largely due to the action of the Theosophical So- 
ciety. We who are members of that society have been writ- 
ing and lecturing upon these matters for the last twenty 



54 THE RATIONALE OF APPARITIONS. 

years and more from a common-sense, scientific point of 
view, and so a certain effect lias at length been produced, and 
the dense ignorance and iron-bound prejudice of the general 
public on such subjects have been somewhat modified. The 
work of another society has also done very much to contrib- 
ute to the enlightenment of the public mind, for the Society 
for Psychical Research has devoted itself to careful investi- 
gation of these and kindred subjects from the scientific side, 
and has patiently collected a vast mass of authenticated 
cases and of unimpeachable testimony, so that for any think- 
ing person the question is settled. 

Those who still contemptuously deny the existence Of appa- 
ritions are simply those who are enirely ignorant of the sub- 
ject, and are foolishly exposing their ignorance by talking 
about things which they do not understand. There is a book 
written by Mr. W. T. Stead, the well-known journalist, called 
Real Ghost Stories, in which he gives to the world a very 
fine collection of such narratives, all well-authenticated, with 
the names and addresses of the various people concerned, so 
that those who will may inquire directly from the men and 
women who had the experiences related. No one could pos- 
sibly read this book carefully without discovering that there 
was very much more to be said for the reality of the appari- 
tion than he had ever supposed before. Mr. Stead himself 
seems to have commenced merely as an investigator, with- 
out any preconceived opinions, but his studies have resulted 
in very definite conviction, as may be seen from the follow- 
ing quotation from his preface: 

ABSURD DELUSION. 

'Of all the vulgar superstitions of the half-educated, none 
dies harder than the absurd delusion that there are no such 
things as ghosts. All the experts, whether spiritual, poet- 
ical, or scientific, and all the others, non-experts, who have 
bestowed any serious attention upon the subject, know that 
they do exist. There is endless variety of opinion as to 
what a ghost may be. But as to the fact of its existence, 
whatever it may be, there is no longer any serious dispute 
among honest investigators. If any one questions that, let 
him investigate for himself. In six months, possibly in six 
weeks, or even in six days, he will find it impossible to deny 
the reality of the existence of the phenomena popularly en- 
titled ghostly. He may have a hundred ingenious explana- 
tions of the origin and nature of the ghost, but as to the ex- 



THE RATIONALE OF APPARITIONS. 55 

istence of the entity itself there will no longer be any doubt." 
You see, here is a very decided attitude adopted by a man 
who has investigated, and has taken a great deal of trouble 
to understand these things ; and his opinion is precisely that 
to which have come all the rest of us who have made a study 
of such matters. Surely then it ill becomes a man who has 
taken no trouble to find out the truth to ridicule the result of 
the hard work of those who have been more deeply interest- 
ed in these vital questions than he happens to be. We who 
study Theosophy know very well that such things do occur, 
and we know also that there is very great confusion in the 
public mind respecting these phenomena. 

Under the vague general heading of ghosts the ordi- 
nary man classes many occurrences due in reality to 
widely different causes. I propose to try to explain 
to you a few of those different classes, so that if 
you should ever come into contact with anything of that na- 
ture, you may be able to distinguish one type of phenomena 
from another, and so know how to deal with them. The 
American race is a psychic one, and therefore it is well with- 
in the bounds of possibility that some one or more of this 
audience may at one time or other have the privilege of see- 
ing what is commonly called a ghost. I use that expression 
advisedly; first, because I regard such experiences as valu- 
able from the certainty and clear comprehension which they 
give with regard to the other life; and secondly, because an 
opportunity to help is always a privilege, and an apparition 
usually wants help of some kind. In such cases many peo- 
ple are foolishly alarmed; but if you know something of the 
subject you will rather observe intelligently, and try to un- 
derstand what it is that you are seeing. 

A BIBLE GHOST STORY. 

It is strange that there should be so much skepticism as to 
the possibility that a dead man should show himself. Every 
Christian, at any rate, is bound by his dogmas to believe that 
he has a soul, and he often speaks of it, and of the necessity 
of "saving" it. I suppose he would indignantly repudiate 
any suggestion that he did not really believe in its existence; 
yet if we refer to it as so real a thing that it may sometimes 
be seen apart from his body while he is living, and that it 
may survive and be seen after his death, he at once accuses 
us of superstition and of belief in old wives' fables! How 
he can reconcile such a silly attitude with the plain teaching 



5 6 THE RATIONALE OF APPARITIONS. 

of his own Bible, we must leave him to explain. The narra- 
tive of the raising of the spirit of Samuel by the woman of 
Endor, for King Saul, makes a very fine ghost story, and of 
course settles the question of the possibility of apparitions 
forthwith for all those who hold the inspiration of the scrip- 
tures. Then you may remember how it is written that after 
the death of the Christ "many bodies of the saints which 
slept arose, and came into the holy city, and were seen of 
many." They were seen of many, you notice; that seems 
rather a well-authenticated ghost story! But most people 
never think what such words in their scriptures really mean 
or imply; they just drift along without troubling themselves 
to understand. 

Let us take up in order the various classes of phenomena 
that people commonly call ghostly, and try to comprehend 
their nature. We shall find that the genuine ghost is only 
one class out of many, and we may as well consider the oth- 
ers first. Remember that when a man still living in the 
physical body sees one who has cast aside that vehicle, and 
is functioning exclusively on the astral plane, one of three 
things must occur. The physical body can receive only the 
vibrations from its own plane, and not those of the astral; so 
that though there are dead men about us all the time, we are 
usually unconscious of their presence. In order to see them, 
either we must raise our faculties to their level for the mo- 
ment, or they must come down to ours. The dead man who 
wishes to show himself to the living may sometimes take 
upon himself for the time a garment of physical matter, so 
that the physical sight of his living friend is capable of per- 
ceiving him; or sometimes he is able to act upon his friend 
as to raise his power of response to a higher level — to in- 
crease his sensitiveness for the time. Thus the physical 
man may for the time be enabled to use his astral faculty to 
a certain extent, though it is normally dormant, and so he 
sees what would usually be hidden from him. The third 
possibility is that of mesmeric action on the part of the dead 
man; his strong wish to manifest himself may sometimes act 
upon the mind of his friend, so as to call up a powerful men- 
tal image, which the living man will take for an objective 
reality. 

VARIOUS MODES OF APPARITIONS. 

In many cases it is not easy to distinguish between these 
various modes of operation. If an apparition is visible si- 



THE RATIONALE OF APPARITIONS. 57 

multaneously to several people, it is most probable that it is 
a materialization, because it would be very difficult to mes- 
merize several people at once, and it is not likely that all of 
them would be equally sensitive; when one man sees an ap- 
parition, and others who are present are unable to see it, 
then it is most probable that the astral senses of that one 
man are temporarily stimulated, or that a mental impression 
has been produced upon him by the earnest effort of the 
dead mau. Many people are already very near the point of 
the opening of astral senses, and it does not need much exer- 
tion of force to open this higher sight for a moment; a very 
little thing will sometimes do it. A strong emotion has been 
known to heighten the vibrations sufficiently; there have 
been cases in which such possibilities showed themselves in 
sickness in persons who had not been aware of them while 
in health, because then the ordinary physical impressions 
which usually dominated them were to some extent weak- 
ened. But, as I have said, there is not always a dead man in 
the case at all, for of our seven classes only one is a direct 
manifestation of him in full consciousness. 

NATURE SPIRITS, PHANTOM BIRDS, ETC. 

1. You will be aware from what I have said in previous 
lectures that we have in the world around us other evolu- 
tions besides the human and the animal — evolutions which 
are normally invisible to us, which have no direct connection 
with our own, though they share with us the earth on which 
we live. To one of these we have given in Theosophical lit- 
erature the name of Nature spirits. Many traditions of such 
creatures remain in the folk-lore of various countries, and 
they have been called by many names — brownies, pixies, 
elves, gnomes, sylphs, undines, fairies, good people, and 
other quaint and suggestive titles. Do not suppose that all 
of such tradition is mere popular superstition; there is a vast 
kingdom of nature of which we are commonly quite uncon- 
scious, but occasionally some member of it, for reasons of 
his own, shows himself to some human being; or perhaps a 
man becomes temporarily capable of the astral or etheric 
sight which enables him to perceive the nature spirit; and 
then, not understanding the character of the phenomenon, 
the man probably says that he has seen a ghost. Sometimes 
what the Germans call poltergeist manifestations are due to 
their action; but we will take those in a separate class. 

2. Another class consists of phantom birds or animals. 



58 THE RATIONALE OP APPARITIONS. 

These may really be ghosts, for the animal has an astral 
body, which survives the death of his physical form, and he 
inhabits it for a certain time — much shorter, of course, than 
the human astral life, but still of appreciable length. Dur- 
ing their time of astral life domestic pets have frequently 
shown themselves to those whom they love, or manifested 
their presence in haunts well-known to them. I have myself 
clearly seen on several occasions a "dead" pet animal in his 
astral body, just as I have often seen him in that astral body 
during his hours of sleep in his earth life. But very fre- 
quently animals which enter into stories of apparitions are 
merely thought forms, or impressions in astral matter. 
Sometimes also they are simple accessories to a genuine ap- 
parition — parts of the scene that his thought calls up. In 
what is perhaps one of the best ghost stories on record, that 
told by General Barter to the Society of Psychical Research, 
a pony was one of the principal features. As, however, the 
pony was dead at the time, it is not possible to be certain 
whether he was an accessory produced by the thought of the 
dead man, or a real ghost on his own account. In the story 
of the miller on the grey horse, told to Mr. Stead, the animal 
is evidently nothing but a materialized thought, and not a 
real ghost; but it is also quite likely that the miller himself 
is of the same nature. It is impossible to tell all these illus- 
trative stories at length in one lecture; but all of them, and 
many more, will be found in full in my new book, "The Other 
Side of Death," in which I have devoted over one hundred 
and fifty pages to this subject of apparitions and their classi- 
fication. 

THE CHURCHYARD GHOSTS. 

3. Another class is what is often called "the churchyard 
ghost." This is not strictly speaking a ghost at all, for the 
real man is not there, and what is seen is usually just as 
truly a corpse as that which is buried below. Such forms 
are generally not clearly defined, but vague floating columns, 
more wreaths of mist in semi-human form than anything 
else. They are composed of the etheric matter which has 
been part of the physical body during earth-life, but is with- 
drawn from it at death. That matter is still closely con- 
nected with the physical remains, so it floats above the grava 
in which they are laid. It reproduces in uncertain outline 
the form of the deceased, and so is sometimes taken for 
him by the ignorant; but in reality he is usually far away 



THE RATIONALE OF APPARITIONS. 59 

with friends whom he loves, and this is nothing but a cast-off 
garment, having no more consciousness than an old coat. 

ASTRAL IMPRESSIONS. 

4. Another class consists of what we call astral impres- 
sions, Mr. Stead writes thus with regard to it: "This is a 
type of a numerous family of ghosts of whose existence the 
phonograph may give us some hint by way of analogy. You 
speak into the phonograph, and forever after as long as the 
phonograph is set in action it will reproduce the tone of your 
voice. You may be dead and gone, but still the phonograph 
will reproduce your voice while with it every tone will be 
audible to posterity. So it may be in relation to ghosts. A 
strong emotion may be able to impress itself upon surround- 
ing objects in such a fashion that at certain times, or under 
certain favorable conditions, they reproduce tne actual im- 
age and actions of the person whose ghost is said to haunt." 

This is exactly what does happen. Psychometry proves to 
us that even the tiniest physical object bears with it forever 
the impress of everything that has occurred in its neighbor- 
hood. Normally this impression remains dormant so far as 
our senses are concerned, and it needs the peculiar power of 
the psychometer to come into touch with it; but naturally 
when it is excessively strong, it needs less sensitiveness to 
become aware of it, and it may even be so much on the sur- 
face as to obtrude itself upon the notice of the ordinary and 
undeveloped man. Wherever tremendous mental disturb- 
ance has taken place, wherever overwhelming terror, pain, 
sorrow, hatred, or indeed any kind of intense passion has 
been felt, an impression of so very marked a character has 
been made by the violent astral vibrations that a person with 
even the faintest glimmer of psychic faculty cannot but be 
deeply influenced by it. It would need but a slight tempo- 
rary increase of sensibility to enable almost anyone to visual- 
ize the entire scene — to see the event in all its detail appar- 
ently taking place before his eyes; and under favorable cir« 
cumstances the record may even be materialized, so that ev- 
ery one may perceive it by means of his physical senses. 

Sometimes such a record will be only a partial reproduc- 
tion of what really happened; only a sound will remain to 
testify to the violence of the emotion which originally caused 
it. You know how many so-called hauntings consist merely 
of sounds which recur at regular intervals, or at certain 
hours. Most of these are probably of this nature. Many 



60 THE RATIONALE OF APPARITIONS. 

years ago I myself had a little experience along these lines — 
a very trifling affair, yet one which illustrates exactly the law 
which we are considering. Near where T was then living, a 
new road was in process of formation across a stretch of 
open ground. As yet no houses were erected, but the road 
was laid out, and the line of curbstones was already in place 
on each side from end to end. The road was separated from 
the broad, flat meadows on each side only by a low post-and- 
rail fence. Naturally everybody who used the road walked 
along the curbstones, as the rest of the road was still rough. 
It was entirely unlighted at night, but was often used as a 
short cut, as the line of the curbstones was not difficult to 
follow. Presently, however, it acquired a bad reputation, 
and was supposed to be haunted in some way, but I never 
heard any particulars. Still, I have seen men waiting at the 
end before plunging into its gloom, hoping that someone else 
would come up, so that they might walk down it together. 

One still, moonlight night I turned into this road about 
nine o'clock and walked briskly down it. A thin mist hung 
over the fields, but I could see with perfect clearness up and 
down the road, and across the meadows on either side. 
When about half-way along (the road was about a mile in 
length) and with nobody in sight either before or behind, I 
suddenly heard somebody begin running desperately, as if 
for his life. He was running along the curbstone, for the 
clear ringing sound of the footsteps was quite different from 
what it could have been on soft earth. I know no words 
strong enough to express the sense of mad haste and over- 
whelming terror which was somehow implied in these 
sounds. I thought at once "Here is somebody horribly 
frightened; I wonder what he has seen or imagined." But 
where was the man? The madly-hastening footsteps came 
rushing wildly towards me; I stood still on the curbstone 
while they dashed up to me, under my very feet and away 
down the road behind me; yet no visible form passed me as 
I stood there startled and wondering! There was no possi- 
bility of any mistake; but for those loud, insistent footsteps, 
the stillness was absolute; there was no doubt whatever 
that they had rushed past me, and there was also no doubt 
that there was no human being there to cause them. There 
lay the road, stretching away in the clear moonlight in both 
directions; the open fence by my side could not have con- 
cealed a dog from me, far less a man; and yet not a living 
being was in sight! 



THE RATIONALE OF APPARITIONS. 61 

This was before the days of the Theosophical Society, and 
I had no comprehensible explanation to offer myself. Now, 
by the light of Theosophical teaching, the whole matter is 
quite simple. No doubt somebody had been frightened at 
that spot — badly frightened — and had rushed wildly away in 
frantic haste to escape towards the friendly gaslights and 
human company from whatever he saw, or thought he saw; 
and so great had been the poor man's terror that it had made 
a deep impression upon surrounding objects. The astral vi- 
brations of this shock of fear had been violent enough to 
make the phonographic record of which Mr. Stead writes — 
that which can reproduce itself upon the physical plane; and 
it had registered the sound of those flying, echoing footsteps 
on the stone in such a manner that they could be repeated 
for my benefit. 

We are not yet sufficiently versed in the laws governing 
such phenomena to be able to distinguish why the sound only 
should have been reproduced, and not the fleeing form, as 
happened in other similar cases. But hauntings which con- 
sist only of sounds seem much more numerous than those 
which involve actual apparition; so it suggests itself that 
the much slower vibrations of sound are more easily regis- 
tered than the very rapid vibrations which would produce an 
effect upon the eye. There are many stories of this type, ob- 
viously due to astral impression. We know how often a 
haunting is supposed to take place at the scene of a murder, 
and often the entire occurrence seems to be rehearsed. 
Such a case is almost always one of astral impression; for al- 
though it is conceivable that the murderer, moved by re- 
morse, might haunt the scene of his crime, it is clear that 
the murdered man would not be in the least likely to do so. 
Sometimes such manifestations may be traced to the unquiet 
thought of the criminal, but more frequently to the impres- 
sion left by the feelings of horror, fear, despair, intense an- 
ger and hatred, which are usually connected with such a 
spot. Many examples will be found in the new book which I 
have just written, in which also are recorded many instances 
of our next class — the curious phenomena produced by what 
is called a poltergeist. 

THE POLTERGEIST. 

5. This is a kind of parody upon a real haunting, though it 
is often even more tiresome and destructive than the genu- 
ine article. It is generally merely a temporary display or 



62 THE RATIONALE OF APPARITIONS. 

mischief, though occasionally it lasts for years. Its com- 
monest form is that of stone-throwing, and of the removal 
and breaking of all kinds of small objects. Such perform- 
ances always involve partial materialization, at least as far 
down as etheric matter; but for this part of the subject I 
must refer you to what I said last week on the subject of 
Spiritualism, and to the chapter of personal experiences of 
Spiritualistic phenomena in my book before-mentioned. 
There may be any one of several different causes at work 
when such phenomena are produced. Undoubtedly in some 
cases malice is involved, and the performance is of the na- 
ture of a persecution; in others it appears to be intended as 
a kind of practical joke. It may be the work of a foolish 
dead man, or it may be due to an imitative and sportive 
nature-spirit; sometimes its production seems to be uninten- 
tional. There are very many cases of it on record, in differ- 
ent countries and at widely separated dates, and examples 
may be found in any of the books which contain collections 
of stories of hauntings. John Wesley's account of the occur- 
rences at Epworth" Parsonage is one of the best known, 
though it was a very mild example of this class of haunting; 
the well-known story of Willington Mill, and that of the 
Drummer of Tedworth, will at once come to the mind of any 
student of this hidden side of nature. 

APPARITIONS OF THE LIVING. 

6. Our sixth class consists of apparitions of the living, 
and these naturally divide themselves into two sub-classes 
— (a) cases in which the man himself is really present, and 
(b) cases in which the apparition is only a thought-form, 
and the man himself is fully awake elsewhere. 

Of the first sub-class we have many well-authenticated in- 
stances. One of the most picturesque is that related by Mr. 
Robert Dale Owen in his "Footfalls on the Boundary of An- 
other World," in which he describes how a man who was 
shipwrecked fell asleep, and during his sleep appeared on 
board a barque and wrote on the captain's slate directions 
for him to steer towards a certain quarter in order that he 
might rescue the castaways. The captain is naturally very 
much mystified, but finally decides to adopt the suggestion, 
and in due course finds and saves the shipwrecked crew, rec- 
ognizing among them the man whom his mate had seen writ- 
ing on his slate some hours before. It is usually only under 
stress of such serious need as this that a man pays an astral 



THE RATIONALE OF APPARITIONS. 63 

visit of the nature described, and makes himself visible to 
physical sight; and it seems to happen most readily when 
the man is on the point of death, as the principles are then 
easily separable. The case of Mary Coffe of Rochester is a 
well-known instance, and there are several others almost 
identical. In each of this group of stories a mother is dying 
away from home, and feels that she could pass away with 
perfect content if only she could see her children once more; 
in each she falls into a deep sleep or trance, and on awaking 
declares that now she can die happily, since she has seen 
them all; in each case the children and their nurse at some 
distant point see the apparition of the mother at just the 
same moment, she comes and smiles upon them, and then 
disappears. Of the first-mentioned of these, Mr. Andrew 
Lang remarks : "Not many stories have such good evidence 
in their favor." 

In all those cases the living person obviously paid the 
visit, leaving his body in sleep or trance; but in our second 
subdivision the man just as obviously does not pay the visit, 
because he is fully awake and conscious elsewhere at the 
moment of the apparition. A case in point is that of a man 
whose duty it was to be at work at six o'clock each morning 
— a duty which he had fulfilled punctually for many years; 
but there came a day when he overslept himself, and did not 
wake until twenty minutes past six. Exactly at that mo- 
ment he was seen to rush into the shop where his employer 
was awaiting him; it was noticed by all who saw him that 
he appeared much excited, but he passed out through a side 
door without speaking. Twenty minutes later he came in, 
also very much excited, and explained that it was twenty 
minutes past six when he wakened, and that he had run all 
the way from his house (he lived a mile from the place of 
business). He knew nothing whatever of the previous visit. 
This is evidently an instance of the materialization of a 
strong thought-form; the man thought very vividly of his 
usual post, and earnestly wished that he was there as usual., 
and in this way he called into existence the form which was 
seen by all the workmen present as well as by the employer 
and his daughter. Nor is this the only example; there are 
hosts of such stories, and there can be no question that such 
things frequently occur. Mrs. Crowe has collected a number 
of instances in her book, "The Night Side of Nature." 

Something very similar once happened to me — a small 



64 THE RATIONALE OF APPARITIONS. 

matter, but exactly illustrating the point under considera- 
tion. During my occupancy of a country curacy I was once 
very much weakened by an accident, and so felt entirely un- 
fit for a very heavy Sunday's work. I got through it some- 
how, though with extreme fatigue, and towards the end of 
the final service I have no doubt that I may have been think- 
ing longingly of rest when it was over, though I have no dis- 
tinct recollection of any such thought. At any rate, when 
I last wended my way to the vestry, I was much startled to 
find myself already installed there, and occupying the only 
chair which the little room possessed! The image was hab- 
ited exactly as I was, in cassock, surplice and stole, all in 
perfect order; and there it sat looking calmly and steadily at 
me. This was before my Theosophical days, so I was un- 
prepared with any explanation for such a phenomenon, 
though I had heard that to see a wraith of oneself foretold 
death. But I was far too utterly wearied then to think or 
care about that; I simply walked up to the apparition and sat 
down upon it, or rather upon its chair, without even offering 
it any apology. What became of it I know not, for when 1 
rose from that chair ten minutes later it was not to be seen. 
No results of any kind followed, and I have never seen a sim- 
ilar appearance since. I can conscientiously say that I be- 
lieve my attention had never swerved from the service which 
I was conducting; yet I suppose that the strong desire for 
rest was present all the while at the back of my mind, and in 
this sub-conscious thought I must have pictured myself as 
sitting down and resting when the service was over. It is 
possible, too, that the weakened condition of my physical 
body may have allowed my inner senses to act more readily, 
and have given me for the moment just sufficient clairvoy- 
ance to enable me to see a strong thought-form. 

7. The first subdivision or variety of apparitions of the 
living which we have just considered — that in which the 
person concerned was really present — has many points in 
common with the most frequent form of apparition after 
death. Just as, among apparitions of the living, the com- 
monest are those of men at the point of death, so among the 
apparitions of the dead the commonest are those which come 
directly after their death to announce it to some one whom 
they love. Of these there are simply scores of examples; 
and we may take them for our first subdivision of genuine 
apparitions. A good case is that of the appearance of Cap- 
tain German Wheatcroft to his wife in England to inform her 



THE RATIONALE OF APPARITIONS. 65 

of his death in battle in India. It differs in no way from a 
hundred others of its class; but it has attained a certain 
celebrity because through it an inaccuracy in the War Office 
records and in the dispatches of the Commander-in-Chief 
was discovered and corrected. Another case which I recol- 
lect at the moment was told to us by a Swedish clergyman — 
a story of a man who died in the snow, and was seen at the 
time of his death by no less than sixteen persons, who all 
agreed as to his appearance, and as to certain peculiarities 
which were found to exist exactly as described by them 
when the body was afterwards discovered in the snow. 

RETURNING TO GIVE HELP. 

Another subdivision of our genuine apparitions consists of 
those who return to help. Some of the dead are still watch- 
ing closely over certain friends or relations in earth -life, 
and any manifestations which they make are for the purpose 
of helping or guarding those friends. One of the most beau- 
tiful of such cases is related by the celebrated English cler- 
gyman, Dr. John Mason Neale. He states that a man who had 
recently lost his wife was on a visit with his little children 
at the country house of a friend. It was a rambling man- 
sion, and in the lower part of it there were long, dark pas- 
sages in which the children played about with great delight. 
But presently they came upstairs very gravely, and two of 
them related that as they were running down one of the pas- 
sages they were met by their mother, who told them to go 
back again, and then disappeared. Investigation revealed 
the fact that if the children had run but a few steps further 
they would have fallen down a deep uncovered well which 
yawned full in their path, so that the apparition of their 
mother had saved them from certain death. I have no doubt 
that that was simply a case of the manifestation of that won- 
derful motner-love still keeping a loving watch over her chil- 
dren even from beyond the portals of the grave. Her strong 
feeling Qf the urgency of the case no doubt gave her the 
power to materialize for the occasion — or perhaps merely to 
impress the children's minds with the idea that, they saw 
and heard her. 

Other interesting instances are those in which the dead 
have returned in order to procure, for those among the liv- 
ing whom they loved, the religious sacraments or consola- 
tions which they considered necessary. Two cases of that 
nature are related by Dr. F. G. Lee in one of his books; in 



66 THE RATIONALE OF APPARITIONS. 

one them two little children call a priest to the bedside of 
their father, describing carefully exactly where he is to be 
found. The priest, on visiting the dying man, discovers that 
he is quite alone, and had been regretting that he had no 
one to send to fetch his spiritual father. The children, whom 
he at once recognized from the priest's description, had been 
dead for some time. There are many instances of action by 
the dead along lines similar to these. A very remarkable 
case of the continuation after death of philanthropical physi- 
cal work is recorded by Dr. Minot J. Savage in a recent num- 
ber of Ainslee's Magazine. He tells us how a Boston 
preacher made a speciality of work among the very poor, and 
had many close friends in that class. After his death he still 
watched over these friends, and constantly gave directions as 
to their assistance through the widow of his colleague, who 
seems to have been mediumistic. He tells also of another 
recent case of an apparition of a dead father to his son, to 
warn him of approaching death. These things happen quite 
frequently close about us in the present day, though few but 
those immediately concerned ever know of them or pay any 
attention to them. 

RETURNING FOR HELP. 

Sometimes the dead return, not to give help but to seek it. 
The need may be real, or it may be merely imaginary — 
based upon conventional ideas. The dead man, for example, 
may be greatly troubled because his body is unburied, or (if 
he happens to be a Catholic) because the requisite number of 
masses have not been said for the repose of his soul. He 
may be troubled with regard to debts which he owes, or with 
regard to debts that are owed to him ; he may be troubled be- 
cause he has left treasure behind him, or because he has not; 
he may have on his mind some neglect or some crime which 
he desires to confess, or for which he wishes to make atone- 
ment; he may be moved by remorse or revenge. Sometimes 
the object for which he returns seems to us decidedly triv- 
ial, and not worth the trouble which it must cost him; in 
other cases his motive is clearly sufficient and praiseworthy. 
All these cases show us how very little the dead man has 
changed; the different characteristics and peculiarities of 
disposition of the various people stand out just as vividly 
after death as before 

Specimens of all these different classes of revenants and 
of many others I have given in the new book to which I pre- 



THE RATIONALE OF APPARITIONS. 67 

viously referred, and I cannot do more than just mention one 
or two of them here. There was an instance of a house- 
keeper, a most respectable and trusted servant, who had 
once yielded to a momentary accession of temptation, and 
stolen some small silver articles belonging to her mistress. 
After her death this troubled her conscience, and she ap- 
peared years afterwards to express her sorrow, and entreat 
her mistress' pardon. In another case an Irish woman was 
much worried about a very small debt which she owed to a 
grocer — the amount, I think, was 92 cents — and found herself 
unable to rest in peace until she had arranged for its pay- 
ment. Another very interesting instance, in which the mat- 
ter was obviously of greater importance, was that of a Cath- 
olic priest who had made notes of a confession which was en- 
trusted to him under the seal of sacramental secresy, and 
was then killed in an accident before he had the opportunity 
of destroying those notes as he had intended to do. Such 
taking of notes of a confession is very rightly strictly for- 
bidden by the church, and so the priest was in great sorrow 
and anxiety lest these should fall into the hands of some one 
who would make a bad use of them. He haunted the place 
in which he had concealed them for eighty years, until some 
one came to whom he could entrust the delicate mission of 
recovering and destroying them unread. That is a very 
good example of the way in which people sometimes suffer 
through many years for what seems like a small neglect or 
failure of duty. There are many who are thus earth-bound 
after death by some passion or longing. Misers frequently 
suffer in this way, for some of them still have the sense of 
property very strongly, while others watch with deep com- 
punction the troubles of those dear to them, which might 
have been alleviated by the money which is now so useless 
to them in this new life. Then again the man who has com- 
mitted a crime often haunts its scene; there are very many 
stories which show that this is so. I remember a good ex- 
ample which is given by Sir Nathaniel Wraxall — the story of 
a clergyman who finds the vicarage of the new cure into 
which he is inducted haunted by his predecessor, who (it ap- 
pears) had murdered two illegitimate children there, and 
was so filled with remorse that he was unable to rest in his 
grave, or rather in the other world in which he found him- 
self. 

As I remarked before, the poltergeist phenomena are some 
times unintentionally produced by the clumsy action of a 



68 THE RATIONALE OF APPARITIONS. 

dead man; and occasionally this manifestation takes a form 
differing slightly from the usual one. Such a case was that 
of Major Moor, in whose house an epidemic of bell-ringing oc- 
curred which lasted for fifty-three days, and was never satis- 
factorily explained. He wrote a pamphlet on the subject, 
which brought him many similar accounts of mysterious hap- 
penings of the same nature. Incredible as it may seem, 
such tricks are sometimes played intentionally by silly peo- 
ple — people of the same type as those who think it amusing 
to play an idiotic practical joke on another man in physical 
life. A person whose development is at that level does not 
suddenly become a sane or reasonable being because he hap- 
pens to die, so senseless tricks are played from the astral 
plane as well as on the physical 

FAMILY GHOST. 

Again, there is the whole question of the family ghost, who 
haunts ancestral castles, and often takes upon himself the 
function of warning his descendants of the approach of 
death. Such an apparition may be really an earth-bound an- 
cestor, detained usually by his intense pride of race and his 
deep interest in the fortunes of his family; or he may be 
merely an astral impression, though in this latter case he 
could not warn the house of coming events. On the other 
hand, such warning may be given by an artificial elemental, 
or thought-form, as I described in my book on The Astral 
Plane. There are other types of apparitions, of which I have 
no time to speak to-night ; I must refer my hearers for fuller 
details to my book on the subject, just as I had to do last 
week with regard to a fuller account of the phenomena of 
Spiritualism, and of my experiences in connection with 
them; for each of these subjects is a vast one, far too great 
to be exhaustively treated in a single evening's lecture. 

Before concluding, however, I should like to say a few 
words more as to the way in which we should meet a deni- 
zen of this wider life, if we should ever be so fortunate as to 
see one. That may easily happen, for many dead men do re- 
turn. Often such a man needs help, and it is always a privi- 
lege to have the opportunity of giving that. We should try 
to look at such a meeting from the point of view of the dead 
man, instead of from a selfish one. Realize that he has prob- 
ably taken much trouble to show himself, and can do so only 
for a very short time. Do not foolishly fear him on the one 
hand, nor try to persuade yourself that he is a hallucination 



THE RATIONALE OF APPARITIONS. 69 

on the other; receive him as a man and a brother, just as 
you would if he came to you for help while yet in his physical 
body; he is none the less your fellow-man because he has for 
the time put off that garment of flesh. Speak to him kindly, 
and ask what you can do for him; perhaps he can speak in 
reply, or if he cannot do that he may at least communicate 
his wishes by means of raps or signs; at any rate treat him 
as a friend, and not as a foe or a bugbear. Teach your chil- 
dren to regard such an occurrence as a visit from a dead man 
as perfectly natural, though rare; thus you will save them 
much unnecessary terror and give them an opportunity of 
some day helping some poor soul who sorely needs it, for all 
of us are brothers, the living and the dead alike, resting ever 
in the sunshine of the same Divine Love. 



The Spiritualist's View of Death. 



An Essay Read Before an Audience in Ashland, Ore= 
gon, by Nora Batchelor. 



There is no subject on which the human mind has dwelt, 
so clouded,, so befogged with erroneous conceptions, as this 
subject of death. There is nothing in the life of man which, 
because of the total lack of understanding which surrounds 
it, has brought to him the deep grief, -the poignant anguish, 
the life-long sorrow which death has brought — suffering 
which is in a large measure unnecessary, and which would 
be greatly lessened if perfect knowledge prevailed in the 
place of utter ignorance. 

It has been the mission of Spiritualism to dissipate much 
of this error; to overcome doubt, to banish fear and terror, 
and to illumine the black darkness of superstition with the 
white light of truth. 

To the enlightened mind, familiar with the truths which 
Spiritualism has brought, death is no longer a calamity. It 
is not the end of life; neither is it a change so great and all 
comprehending that the eyes of love look in vain for the old 
familiar personality of the loved and lost, in the crowned and 



70 THE SPIRITUALIST'S VIEW OF DEATH. 

winged angels of heaven. To those who understand it truly 
it is but a continuance of the earth life, under new and hap- 
pier conditions. Not an inner change, but an outer one. 
Not a change of personality, but a change, or rather an en- 
largement of environment. The spirit remains the same. 
Nothing is lost. The old world remains to it as before, but a 
new and higher world is added. Nothing in the old life and 
associations is lost, but possibilities of a new and broader life 
open wide before it. It has dwelt hitherto in its house of 
clay, knowing nothing, seeing, hearing, feeling nothing, save 
that which transpired within the confines of those narrow 
walls. Now, through the portal of death, it comes out into 
the warmth, the light and beauty of the spirit world, there to 
encounter new experiences, new delights, new joys; to meet 
old friends and welcome new ones; to gain knowledge; to 
unfold higher powers; to grow in wisdom, goodness and 
purity, through all the years of immortal life. 

Death is not a misfortune, not a catastrophe. It is merely 
an incident in the evolution of life, as natural and beautiful 
as many another. It is the opening of the flower, the burst- 
ing of the chrysalis, the unfolding of the wings in a new and 
more ethereal world. It is not a thing over which to grieve 
and mourn, but rather something over which to rejoice and 
be glad. For it means freedom. It means life. It means 
added powers, added capacities. It means a breaking of 
bonds, a snapping of cords, a sailing away of the hitherto 
imprisoned spirit into a realm of love and light and beauty. 
It means to leave the thraldom of the senses for the untram- 
meled freedom of the spirit world. 

Who mourns and weeps when the birdling breaks its shell 
and frees itself at last from its tiny prison house? Who 
sighs and mourns when, stronger grown, this feathered em- 
bodiment of joy stands on the edge of the nest, all quivering 
with delight and anticipation, spreads his untried wings and 
takes his first flight into the great beautiful world which 
henceforth shall be his home? No tears are shed for the 
nestling who leaves the narrow confines of his birthplace for 
the larger life of field and forest. None should be for the 
soul which bursts the bonds of sense, and thrilling with joy 
and expectation takes its flight into the great unknown spirit 
world. Just as the little songster may return again and 
again to the old tree which sheltered him in infancy, and in 
whose arms his tiny cradle was rocked — just as he may poise 



THE SPIRITUALIST'S VIEW OF DEATH. 71 

again and again above the downy little nest that saw his 
birth, and pour out his joy in rapturous floods of melody, so 
may the emancipated soul return to the home of its birth, 
bringing with it the joy and gladness, the soul-inspiring 
songs of the angel world, thrilling those who remain on the 
earth plane with something of its own sense of freedom and 
happiness. 

To those who view it from the spiritual standpoint, death 
is a beneficent thing. It is not the arch enemy of man, but 
on the contrary, is often the best friend a storm-tossed, 
struggling soul may have. There is nothing over which to 
mourn when death comes to the relief of the suffering — those 
whose lives have been one long series of misfortunes and dis- 
appointments, of conflict with adverse circumstances and 
unhappy environment — there is no cause for regret when at 
last the chains are broken and the captive set free. Our 
selfish sorrow gives place to gladness when, after the first 
burst of grief is passed, we realize that the suffering of the 
loved one is over; that nevermore can the cares and trials 
of material life vex his spirit, nor its burdens weigh him 
down; that he is safe and well on the "other shore," free at 
last from the limitations that beset him here, and with ample 
opportunity to develop to the highest degree the noble quali- 
ties of mind and spirit which here were "cribbed, coffined 
and confined"; that he has left forever the storm-beaten 
track of material existence for the peaceful, sunny uplands of 
the illimitable fields of spirit life. 

"O still, white face of perfect peace, 

Untouched by passion, freed from pain, — 

He who ordained that work should cease 
Took to himself the ripened grain. 

"O noble face! your beauty bears 

The glory that is wrung from pain, — 
That high, celestial beauty wears 

Of finished work, of ripened grain. 

"Of human care you left no trace, 

No lightest trace of grief or pain, — 
On earth an empty form and face — 

In heaven stands the ripened grain." 

When the aged lay down their burdens, when they pass out 
of the worn body that is no longer a fit habitation for the 



72 THE SPIRITUALIST'S VIEW OF DEATH. 

indwelling spirit, when they shuffle off the mortal coil that 
has become a prison-house, and are born into the freshness 
and beauty, the strength and power, the eternal youth of the 
spirit life, there is far more cause for rejoicing than for sor* 
row. If our eyes could be opened, if our senses might be 
made keen, that we might behold the scenes into which they 
have entered, if we might witness the clad reunions on the 
other side, as the new-born soul is welcomed by loved ones 
who have long since passed to the higher life, if we could be 
made conscious of all the unutterable joy, the keen delight, 
the deep abiding happiness which the change has brought, 
we would mourn and lament nevermore. 

In the case of the little ones, and those who are taken away 
in the bloom of youth, there seems less of consolation, and 
more to regret and sorrow over. But even here we can find 
much of comfort in the thought that, although the experi- 
ences, the lessons and pleasures of earth life are missed, its 
misfortunes, its errors and sorrows are also missed. The 
child, the youth or maiden passes into the hands of those 
who are wiser far than we. They pass under the guidance 
and instruction of those who, from the beginning, will teach 
them truth and not error. They will not be compelled to 
pass a lifetime in the other world unlearning the false les- 
sons of this. When we are reminded of all the monstrous 
error, the hideous falsehoods with which the child mind is 
filled in this present-day civilization (?) of ours, it becomes 
a question whether the little ones are not better off in the 
hands of their angel guides. If we could know of the brighter 
and better life into which they have gone, of the truer eth- 
ical and spiritual training which they will receive, of the 
fuller opportunities, the grander possibilities open before 
them, it is doubtful whether we would rejoice or be sad. 

Nor is it true that the little ones leave their earthly homes, 
and go to some far away abode beyond the skies, nevermore 
to return. Again and again are they brought back by their 
spirit guides to visit the old home, and their interest in and 
love and sympathy for the friends of earth thus kept alive 
through all the years of seeming separation — a separation 
that exists on one side only, and need not exist at all if the 
parents were not rendered blind and deaf to the presence of 
their loved one by reason of a false belief. 

It is this false belief, this erroneous conception concerning 
death and the life beyond, which more than anything else. 



THE SPIRITUALIST'S VIEW OF DEATH. 73 

prevents the invisible inhabitants of the other world from 
making their presence known. Think of your spirit friends 
always as dwelling at an immeasurable distance from you, 
and without the possibility of return, and you erect an in- 
superable barrier between yourselves and them. They can- 
not reach you nor touch you. They may stand at your side, 
but they cannot reach your consciousness. They cannot 
make themselves known to you because in your thought you 
have separated them from you and placed them at a distance. 

On the other hand, think of them as near you, as coming 
often to visit you, as cherishing the same love for you and 
interest in your welfare that they manifested when here, 
and slowly but surely you brush aside the veil between. 
Little by little you lessen the obstacles between their con- 
sciousness and yours. For remember these obstacles are 
spiritual, not material. They exist in your own mind and 
soul, not elsewhere. This matter of spirit communion is the 
most subtle thing in the universe. It is governed by laws 
that are purely spiritual, and of which we have as yet but a 
slight comprehension. But this much we have learned, that 
upon our own attitude toward the spirit world depends in 
large measure the question of whether or not we may come 
into direct communication with it. 

Never think of your spirit friends as "lost" or as "gone." 
They are neither the one thing nor the other. The body is 
lost, it is true, but the spirit still is here, longing to make its 
presence known to you. Cultivate your better part, drop 
your sordid aims, leave your worldly ambition, place yourself 
in harmony with higher spheres of thought and aspiration, 
live upon a more spiritual plane, and your friend may come 
to you. Don't live down there in the cellar of your being, 
and then complain because the bright exalted beings of a 
more ethereal realm cannot descend into your dank unwhole- 
some atmosphere. Live in the upper chambers of your soul, 
with windows ever open to the sky, and perchance these 
heavenly visitors may some day come to you — all unexpect- 
edly it may be — and come to remain. Not that they will- 
come from a distance — you will soon learn that they have 
been with you all the time, but unable to reach your con- 
sciousness because of barriers in your own mental and spirit- 
ual life. 

It often happens that, after the death of a loved friend, 
psychic powers before undreamed of, are most unexpectedly 



74 THE SPRITUALIST'S VIEW OF DEATH. 

developed. Without doubt this is because the thought of the 
one bereaved is turned with more than usual intensity to the 
spirit world. In thought he dwells upon that plane, material 
interests being for the time lost sight of. The soul powers 
are quickened and strengthened, the whole life lifted up and 
spiritualized, and because of this the way is made open be- 
tween the soul of the disembodied and the friend of earth. 
A whole new world is opened up to him, of whose existence 
he had not dreamed. Possibilities of spiritual growth and 
development lie open before him, before unrecognized. 

So if death brings loss, it also brings gain. Many can date 
their spiritual awakening — the dawning in them of higher 
hopes, aims, aspirations, the desire for nobler and purer 
things in life — from the death of a much loved friend, and 
the desire for knowledge of and communion with the spirit 
world, to which that event inevitably led. Out of darkness 
came light; out of despair hope; out of ignorance, knowl- 
edge. 

In death there is no loss, no separation to those who truly 
understand. Death, has not the power to sever a strong at- 
tachment. Instead of lessening, it but serves to deepen and 
strengthen. The physical presence is not essential to the 
highest love. Its absence rather enhances, purines, spirit- 
ualizes. 

"Well blest is he who has a dear one dead: 
A friend he has whose face will never change — 
A dear communion that will not grow strange; 
The anchor of a love is death. 

"The blessed sweetness of a loving breath 
Will reach our cheek all fresh through weary years. 
For her who died long since, ah! waste not tears, 
She's thine unto the end." 

When friends are parted thus, not in spirit but in body, 
their relationship gradually assumes a new and higher char- 
acter. The one who has dropped his garment of clay little 
by little assumes the part of instructor, guide or guardian 
angel to the one still in the body. From the loftier plane of 
the spirit life he brings counsel, knowledge, inspiration. 
Selfish elements, if such existed, are little by little elimi- 
nated in the purer companionship that follows. I know of no 
companionship, no communion, more divinely beautiful than 
this; no love more pure and exalted than that between spirit 



THE SPIRITUALIST'S VIEW OP DEATH. 75 

and mortal, where one ministers to all high spiritual needs, 
and one is ministered unto; where one gladly gives of his 
best and highest, and one eagerly and thankfully receives. 
Earth holds nothing that can in the least compare with it. 
There is an understanding and a sympathy which never 
could be realized when both were in the body. The veil is 
torn away on one side at least, and there is a consciousness 
of nearness, a possibility of spiritual communion which 
never before existed. In quiet hours of the day, and in 
dreams at night, our loved one comes as he never came be- 
fore. We feel that we never knew him so well, that we 
never realized his true worth, his real greatness so much as 
now. And bye and bye we learn to smile when others speak 
of him as "dead." 

No, the philosophic Spiritualist cannot long remain in a 
state of grief and despair. When the shock caused by death 
is past, and his faculties resume their normal activity, he 
soon realizes that there is no loss and no separation; that 
these are only in the seeming, in the outer, material world 
only; that all that is spiritual still abides and endures. The 
apparent and the illusory soon yield to the consciousness of 
the real and the true. The fact of continued life, the truth 
of spirit return and spirit communion soon drives out the 
thought of death and separation. Soon he learns that there 
is still union, unbroken and indissoluble; that 

"Life is ever lord of Death, 
And Love shall never lose its own." 

Regret is soon past. We know that all is well with our 
spirit friends. We would not have them back now if we 
could. They would not wish to come, for they are happier 
where they are. They have become our angel guardians, un- 
der whose instruction and inspiration we have "grown to 
something greater than before." The spiritual nature has 
been unfolded and developed. We have been weaned from 
earth, from petty aims and ambitions, from sordid thoughts 
and pursuits. For there is no event in life so spiritualizing 
as the death of a loved one, and the thoughts and desires to 
which it gives rise. And we learn to be content. We would 
not have it otherwise now, if we could. We have found 
peace, and are happy in the thought of ultimate reunion in 
the higher life, and a long eternity of growth, unfoldment, 
and joyous companionship, beyond the veil. 



Journeying in the Spirit Realms. 

The Spirit Home and Its Surroundings — Sights and 

Scenes Along the Way — By Mary E. France, 

of Seattle, Wash. 



In my last articles published in The Progressive Thinker 
I did not mention the darkest places to which I was taken, 
not caring to dwell on these dark scenes more than was nec- 
essary. I laid them aside for another time, but that they 
were lessons given to me, for a purpose, I well know, and 
that purpose was to give them out for the benefit of human- 
ity, and thereby aid my teachers from the spirit side of life 
in spreading these truths. I only wish I had the power to 
impress these scenes upon every soul who has not yet caught 
the bright gleam from the angel world, to arrest them in 
their dark deeds, and show them as it has been so beauti- 
fully shown me, the true condition of the next life, after liv- 
ing as we should here. And if these articles will be the 
means of turning one soul to the light. I know there will be 
rejoicing in the angel world, and I will feel that my efforts 
have not been in vain. 

As my teacher showed me the brightest first, so I will tell 
you of my Spirit Home Number Two, for in my last article I 
told you of one of my homes, which was in colors, one room 
the furnishings were all in pink, another white, another blue, 
and the last room I was taken into being yellow. So after 
preparing myself for another journey and sending out a 
prayer for strength, I soon heard the well known voice of 
one who has accompanied me on a part of my trips, say, 
"Come, child, we will go to another place to-day," so we 
floated out and up. 

We were not so high on the first part of our journey as we 
76 



JOURNEYINGS IN THE SPIRIT REALMS. 77 

had been before, so that as we floated along I could see the 
beautiful scenery better than on some of the other trips. We 
crossed a large body of water, and after leaving it the view 
was beautiful. 

My guide, taking my hand, said, "We will ascend now"; 
so we slowly went higher and after traveling some distance 
he said, "Child, in my father's house are many mansions, and 
in thy progression thee will need another home other than 
the one thou hast seen," and as he finished saying this, we 
came in sight of the most beautiful home that mortal eyes 
could imagine. It stood on a high slope of ground, facing 
the west, and looked as I have always pictured some of the 
grand old mansions do; it was immense and pure white, sur- 
rounded by a low fence of festoons of white flowers. The 
grounds were laid out beautifully, a white fountain stood on 
one side of the white marble walk, the water shooting high 
in the air, the grass was green, with here and there a pot of 
Easter lilies; as my other home had, so did this one, a wide 
curved porch, with broad steps leading up into the house. I 
was standing spellbound looking at these beautiful things, 
when my guide broke into my pleasant thoughts by saying, 
"Come, child, thee will want to see the inside of this beauti- 
ful home." 

The surroundings were so interesting and beautiful that it 
had not occurred to me to go inside. As he said this we 
walked up the steps, opened the door and went inside, when 
there was presented to my view the grandest, most delight- 
ful scene of all, filling me with happiness and delight. Ev- 
erything in this home was pure white, the floor was covered 
with a white velvet carpet so soft that when we stepped 
upon it we sank into it. * 

"Oh," I cried, "what a beautiful home! How can I ever ex- 
pect to live in a home like this? There must be some mis- 
take." 

"No, child, this will be thy home, thee is building it now 
with thy good thoughts and deeds. Go on, oh, child, sending 
out thy beautiful thoughts to heaven, and do all the good 
thee can and this is thy reward." 

As my guide finished speaking I cast my eyes around the 
room, and as I did so they fell on a wide open piano, pure 
white; in the centre of the room stood a center-table, and on 
top of it a pot of Easter lilies. Over a wide mantle I was 
amazed to see a life-size picture of myself, framed in white, 



78 JOURNEYINGS IN THE SPIRIT REALMS. 

my hands clasped, my head drooped as if in prayer, dressed 
in white. I came out of my reverie and turning to my guide, 
we started and walked to the opposite side of the room 
where a wide white marble stairway led to the rooms above ; 
at one side of this stairway on one of the posts was a statue 
of Christ. The wide steps were covered up the center with a 
strip of white velvet carpet. We had gone about half way 
up, when the vision had faded, my guide gone, and a sadness 
stole over me, when I thought I had lost it all. 

I soon afterward visited this home again, and the view 
from an upp*er window overlooking the grounds and to a lake 
close by, was indeed beautiful. 

May 4th of this year I again visited it. I found myself 
standing on the opposite side of this home from where I saw 
it before, this being on the east side, while on my other visit 
I only saw it from the west. 

Oh, this beautiful home! I can hardly describe it as I 
saw it to-day. It is white marble and looked like a palace. 
As I stood looking up at it I thought, Oh, what a grand 
home! Can it be possible that I will ever live in a home like 
this? And the grounds, too, are beautiful, the walks being 
white marble bordered with flowers, with trees scattered 
here and there over the lawn. I speak of this home, for the 
reason that I know if I have a home there so much more 
beautiful than any earth home I have seen, I am sure that all 
of earth's children will have the same. 

But as all the spheres are not so bright as this one I must 
give what I saw in the dark ones as well. 

I had instructions from my teacher from the spirit side of 
life to prepare myself for these journeys. I did so every 
morning for fifteen days, and at nine o'clock each morning 
found me ready, and each time I was told to center my 
thoughts on the place visited the day before, and as I did so 
I would start from this place. So this morning we started 
from the beautiful home we visited yesterday, my guide say- 
ing, "Come, child, we will leave this place; now take a look 
at the surroundings before leaving, for thee may not see it 
again until thee returns to stay; although thee may, some 
time." 

I did take a look and it was a great temptation to stay, for 
everything looked so bright and beautiful, so after waiting a 
moment for me to take a last look, he said: 

"Come, child, we will go to a lower sphere to-day." So we 
started and floated over a beautiful stretch of country, like 



JOURNEYINGS IN THE SPIRIT REALMS. 79 

the most of it we passed over looked like a panorama of 
moving pictures. After traveling some distance we seemed 
to turn and go in an easterly direction, when on looking 
ahead and below, I saw what I thought were Indian wig- 
wams scattered over a lonely desert. 

Upon coming closer I saw they were tents set here and 
there on the most desolate-looking country I ever saw; 
they were standing on rocks and sand; the hot sun pour- 
ing down upon them, and scattered around on the ground 
were human beings. I thought, Oh! if there is a hell this 
must be one, for I was never in such a hot place in my 
life. I thought, why don't they go inside the tents? There 
they would be sheltered from the hot sun, but when I 
went up to one of them, I found out why they did not, 
for if possible, it was hotter inside than it was on the 
outside. They seemed to be set up to lure the people to 
them, only to turn them away with disappointment. 

I was so intensely interested in watching them and try- 
ing to devise some way whereby they could be made more 
comfortable, that the voice of my guide startled me by 
saying, "Come." In my intense curiosity I had for the 
time forgotten him. So I turned around and went to 
where he stood when to my horror, I saw a man lying at 
his feet, begging for water. He said: Oh, only give 
me a little water. Oh, God! if there is a God, oh why 
am I in a hell like this? Oh, help! Oh — " and as he 
uttered this last sound, he fell back on the hot sand. 

I was greatly excited and turning to my guide, said, 
*'Oh, father! what does this mean?" 

"This, my child, is one who has been taught the right 
way, but would not listen, and in his besotted condition, 
passed to this life, caring for nothing better than whisky 
and all the things which go to make a drunkard's life." 

I was glad to hear my guide say, "Come, child, we will 
go farther," for there was not a drop of water in sight to 
relieve his thirst, nor was there a blade of grass, or a liv- 
ing thing in the shape of a tree or vine, nothing but rock 
and sand everywhere, and as I could not relieve his suffer- 
ing I was glad to go. The next place I was taken to, an- 
other sight met my eyes worse than the one just related. 

While looking at this the words of the "Wanderer in the 
Spirit Land" flashed across my mind. My guide seemed to 
catch my thought, for turning to me he said, "My child, 



80 JOURNBYINGS IN THE SPIRIT REALMS. 

while you have read this we wanted thee to see it with thine 
own eyes, so that the lesson would be all the stronger." 

Yes, so it is, but oh, this is horrible, for at our very feet, 
and all around us were moving reptiles, and slime of the 
worst kind. 

And, oh, horror! lying in the midst of it were human be- 
ings, men and women, from the worst slums of earth. 

"Oh!" I cried, "father, can it be possible that people who 
have inhabited the earth must pass through anything of this 
kind?" 

His answer was, "Yes, child, but it is their own fault, for 
they knew better." 

Here were lewd women, murderers, drunkards, and every 
crime imaginable represented. My guide stopped beside a 
being who seemed to be in the most horrible agony. I was 
told that he was a murderer. He certainly had committed 
some horrible crime, for I could hear his agonizing cries for 
days. He kept repeating, "Take them away! Oh, take them 
away! Why do they come here to haunt me!" and in his 
horrible agony he was continually writhing in the slime and 
among the hideous-looking reptiles, and with his awful moan- 
ing and words put before my mental vision some of his vic- 
tims of innocent women and children. 

My guide knowing this lesson was well imbedded in my 
soul, led me to another scene, where in a heap (it looked this 
way to me) lay little tiny babies. "Oh!" I cried, "father, 
what does this mean? and in sucb an awful place for little 
innocent beings like these." 

"My child, these are the offcasts from the lowest slums of 
earth thrust out before their time, and so saturated with the 
sins of their unnatural parents, must be cleansed by these 
ministering angels whom you see hovering over them, before 
they can be released, to take their flight upward." 

Raising my eyes upward I cried, "Oh, heavenly father, 
what a work there is to be done on the earth plane, and, oh, 
so few to do it. Oh, help me to stand firm as an iron post in 
my duty as I see it to-day; help me, oh, God, seeing these 
truths as they have been shown me, to stand up for this truth 
and clasp hands with these dear ones, who are trying so 
hard to enlist my help in spreading this great truth." 

And as this prayer left my soul, I found myself again in 
my body, and was surprised to see formed around me, clasp- 
ing hands in their delight, a band of angels, rejoicing to know 



JOURNEYINGS IN THE SPIRIT REALMS. 81 

that they had found another who could grasp their meaning 
and understand these lessons, as they take me to them each 
day. 

I sat there and watched them until their hallelujahs grew 
fainter and fainter, and this beautiful, encouraging vision 
had vanished as had all the rest. 

But oh, what an impression these dear ones have left on 
my soul, and may I never be found wanting in my duty as I 
see it now, for these lessons are written in letters of fire on 
my soul and I hope will never grow dim. 

This morning my guide said, "Come, child, I will show thee 
a brighter place than the one we visited yesterday." So, tak- 
ing my hand, we floated up and away. We soon saw a beau- 
tiful landscape which looked more beautiful than ever after 
gazing on such a dark picture as I did yesterday. 

After traveling over miles of these pleasing scenes, we 
came to something which astonished me greatly : After set- 
tling down on the ground, we entered what I found to be a 
spirit orchard. I thought I had seen beautiful orchards on 
the earth plane, but there was no comparison, for this one 
was more beautiful than I thought could be made. Instead 
of earth for a treading place it looked like white cement and 
seemed to be an endless park. My guide pulled off a large 
buuch of purple grapes, handed them to me and said, "Child, 
dost thou see the beautiful fruit?" 

"Oh, yes," I answered, "and what large, luscious fruit, too," 
and as we walked on I saw such a great variety of pears, 
peaches, plums, apples, grapes and every kind imaginable. 
We walked a long way, and the trees were all loaded with 
fruit. 

We now came to a light gray building, went up two or 
three steps, and when looking over the door I saw a little an- 
gel, appearing more like an innocent little child, holding in 
its hand a white banner. "Peace to all who enter here" 
were the words which caught my eyes, written in letters of 
gold. My guide opening the door, we entered a beautifully 
furnished room. I was surprised when I learned later that 
this was a spirit school, and if the parents of earth could only 
know and see as I have, what beautiful surroundings and 
homes their little ones have after entering the spirit world, 
their tears would be dried up, and their heartaches would 
give way to rejoicings and hallelujahs, for the first room was 
indeed beautiful, its whole furnishings were in gold and 



82 JOURNBYINGS IN THE SPIRIT REALMS. 

white, the draperies, easy chairs and couches were ail white 
and gold, the carpet being the same color. We left this room 
and entered a long dining-room. This room was also fur- 
nished in gold and white. A table running almost the full 
length of the room was loaded with the same luscious fruit 
which I had seen in the orchard. 

We left this room and entered what proved to be a large 
school-room, filled with groups of happy children. It dawned 
upon me now what it was, but for information I said, 
"Father, what can this be? I see no books." 

His answer was, "Child, look around thee." 

I did so, and hanging around the walls were mottoes of 
Truth, Love, Happiness, Progression, and so on, and' scat- 
tered among the children were young women dressed in 
white, whom I took to be their teachers. They were a hap- 
py lot of little ones, quite noisy, but not like our school-chil- 
dren on earth, for they were not boisterous. I was so inter- 
ested in watching the little ones that I did not look at the 
room, only as my guide called my attention to it. He said, 
pointing up to the ceiling, which was quite high and concave, 
"Child, dpst thou see those little beings? They are some of 
the little ones thee looked at yesterday. As they progress 
they come down and mingle with these older ones." 

And as my eyes rested on them they widened with aston- 
ishment to see these little things flying around the dome 
looking more like butterflies in human shape. While look- 
ing up at them, I was so overcome, I cried, "Oh, father, what 
wonderful truths you have shown me. May I never forget 
these lessons." 

When I gathered my scattered thoughts the children were 
all leaving the schoolroom for outdoor sports. We followed 
them to the door and when on looking out and beyond a 
beautiful green lawn and through the trees, I saw a lake cov- 
ered with tiny boats, Some of the children were running to 
get into them to take a ride, and there seemed to be plenty 
for all; others were rolling on the grass, but each one was 
full of happiness. 

After coming back, this pleasant scene kept coming before 
my vision, and I thought, Oh, if the parents of earth only 
knew how happy their little ones are, they could not mourn 
for them. And I prayed that the time would soon come 
when these truths would be known and understood by all on 
earth. 



JOURNEYINGS IN THE SPIRIT REALMS. 83 

On this same day, after visiting the school, my guide said, 
"Child, there is another place I would show thee at this 
time." So he took me to a home where I was greatly sur- 
prised to see my husband's father, mother, and five of his 
brothers and sisters, and returned with a message to him 
from them. I will say right here that I was with them twice 
while on these journeys, and recognized the ones I have seen 
on earth. They looked younger than when they passed out, 
but as this is personal, I only mention it, as I have been 
asked a number of times if I recognized anyone there. 

There is one more dark scene that I feel it a duty to give 
out, and I wish that there was no such place on earth, for 
this journey was on the earth plane, but as it was shown to 
me and I was told to give out these truths, I feel in duty 
bound to do it, but I cannot give it as I saw it, for what I saw 
while peering through this cell sent a shudder over me for 
days when I thought of it. 

We traveled some distance this morning, when looKing far 
ahead I saw a large city. As we came nearer the first thing 
which caught my eye was church spires in different parts of 
the city, and the next which flashed before my vision was an 
immense gray building, covering acres of ground built on a 
high slope of ground just outside the city. We floated up to 
it, my guide saying at the same time, "We will stop here," 
and as I looked at the building and terraced grounds with 
well-kept flower beds and trees scattered here and there over 
the green lawn I thought: Oh, what an ideal place! not 
dreaming of the sorrow and degradation to be found hidden, 
deep down underneath this beautiful structure, and looked 
at daily, with pride, by hundreds of this fair city, for its 
black secrets are well guarded by the inmates of this seem- 
ingly happy place, they little dreaming that their wickedness 
is iaid bare before the eyes of the spirit world. 

My guide led the way up some broad stone steps, saying, 
"Child, this is a nunnery." Upon entering the hallway, the 
first person we met was a nun, and I thought, what a sad face. 
He led me out of this entrance into another long hall to a 
dining-room, where seated around a table were five or six 
nuns, but the face of each one had such a sad, careworn look 
that as I stood looking at them this vibration of sadness 
struck me with such force I think prepared me a little for 
what was to come. After looking at them a few moments, 
my guide said, "Come, child, I want thee to see still further." 



84 JOURNEYINGS IN THE SPIRIT REALMS. 

So we turned and went down a narrow stairway — down, 
down, until it grew quite dark. We stopped in front of a 
steel cell, padded on the inside, but seeming to open for my 
benefit, for I could look right into it, but what I saw and 
heard while peering into this cell was enough to make any- 
one's blood run cold in their veins, and if the pure mothers 
could know of the impure lives some of their daughters 
were forced to live after entering these blackest of earth's 
low dives — I say blackest, because they are covered by the 
cloak of religion — they could not rest while one stood on the 
face of the earth, for the pleading tones of the frightened 
one for her honor and the ang^y loud voice of the other, as 
he flung her to the far side of the cell with "Go, you devil ! " 
sent a shudder all over me and with a feeling of horror I 
turned to my guide and asked him to take me away. His 
only answer was "Come." He led the way and I followed 
him down until we were in a dark, dismal, damp, mouldy 
dungeon. We stopped in front of another cell, locked on 
the outside with a big padlock. I soon knew this, too, held 
a human being, by hearing her heartrending cries of "Oh! my 
God! take my soul, and free me from this living hell! Oh, 

God, why am I made to suffer in this way? Oh! " and 

her agonizing cries almost froze the blood in my veins. 

Looking through the grating the only piece of furniture in 
sight was an old cot with a ragged comfort thrown over it, 
and the pitiable object of humanity was, too, clothed in 
mouldy rags. 

I turned away with a sinking heart, and cried, "Oh, heav- 
enly father, can it be possible that one of God's children is 
made to suffer in this way? and all for trying to save her 
good name? Oh!" I cried, "take me away," for I was so 
evercome and weak it seemed to me I could stand no more, 
and as I turned to my guide he said, "Child, thee has heard 
of these wrongs, but to impress these lessons still deeper on 
thy soul, I brought thee here that thee might see for thy- 
self." 

These scenes were so deeply .impressed on me that after 
coming back I shed tears, and raising my hands toward 
heaven, I cried, "Oh, heavenly father, why are these evils 
permitted? Hasten the day when these poor wronged be- 
ings may be set free and every nunnery on our fair land 
thrown open to the gaze of the world." 

My guide, who is punctual, and always ready to go, said 



JOURNEYINGS IN THE SPIRIT REALMS. 85 

this morning, "Come, child, we will go from here to a higher 
realm, to a place thou hast not seen." So taking my hand, 
which seems to give me strength, we floated up above the 
spirit orchard and school which we visited the day before, 
and after rising up so that I could look down and over it, it 
was indeed a pleasing picture to look at. I said, "What a 
beautiful place!''' 

"Yes, my child, it is indeed a beautiful place, but dost thou 
see that beautiful scene also?" pointing to a wide stretch of 
country ahead of us. I looked and another scene was spread 
out ahead of and below us, but very different from the one 
we had just left, for instead of the orchard I saw a narrow 
winding stream, the sloping banks covered with green grass 
and tall, stately trees. I could see no underbrush or rub- 
bish of any kind as we see on earth, but everything looked 
clean and trim, the trees being perfect, with no crooked or 
misshaped ones among them. From here we gradually went 
higher, the atmosphere becoming lighter and clearer. After 
traveling some time, we came to another city. As far as I 
could see there were buildings. It seemed to be a vastly 
populated city. 

We settled down in front of a large purple and gold temple. 
The door was an oval archway. My guide said, "Look well, 
child, before we enter." And when he said this, I saw writ- 
ten in letters of gold over the door, "Angels of Purity." 

After surveying the outside to my satisfaction, we entered 
the door, and as we did so there immediately spread around 
my body a thin gauzy purple robe. I was surprised at this 
and looked at my guide <o say something, but he did not, so 
we walked in and soon my ears caught a chant and instru- 
mental music of "Glory, glory, glory!" It seemed very 
strange to me, and I wondered what it could mean. 

The interior of the temple was beautiful, being purple and 
gold blending into each other, making the prettiest color one 
one could imagine. 

The guide led me to the back of the room and up two or 
three wide steps, when on looking around I saw two purple 
and gold fonts filled with water, one standing on either side 
of the rostrum. While I was looking at these I began to 
grow weak and was drawn back to my body. My guide see- 
ing this, brought me back by saying in sharp tones, "Come 
back, child, come back." 

When I came back I saw that on the back part of the wide 



86 JOURNEYINGS IN THE SPIRIT REALMS. 

rostrum stood a band of angels, each dressed in rich purple 
and gold. They seemed to harmonize in beauty with every- 
thing in the temple. My guide led me up between the two 
fonts when they replaced my thin robe with one of heavy 
purple velvet, putting around my waist a girdle of gold with 
tassels of gold hanging down in front. Then a master 
stepped up in front of me with a gold crown in one hand on 
which were the words, "Angels of God," saying: "My child, 
your struggles through life have been long and trying. At 
times you have almost felt like giving up in despair, but al- 
ways that bright star would break through the clouds, and 
beckon you on, and in your true devotion to God, you would 
gather up strength to go on up the path, which unknown to 
you, had been planned. And, oh, my child, I am glad it is so, 
for by so doing you have at last reached the highest position 
which is possible to attain and are now ready for the crown, 
which has been prepared for you." 

Placing it on my head, he continued : "May you ever wear 
it with wisdom when sitting in council with these your co- 
workers" — pointing at the same time to the band of angels 
who stood back of him — "who have gathered here this morn- 
ing to bid you welcome into their glorious band." 

Then dipping his hand into one of the fonts, sprinkled my 
head with the water, said, "Now. my child, I baptize thee in 
the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost," and as 
he finished saying this the angel band which had gathered 
around me began to chant, "Glory, glory, glory!" and accom- 
panied with instrumental music, left an impression on me 
that will last through all time. 

"Oh!" I cried, "what does this mean? Can it be possible 
that this is for me, when I am so unworthy? Oh, is it possi- 
ble that I have been welcomed into this angel band! Am I 
worthy? Oh, is it true?" 

I found myself back in my body with the tears running 
down my cheeks, when the voice which is always near, said : 
"My child, this is true, as are all the others we have been 
showing you; put it, too, down in your book, and know it is 
true and will be carried out when you come to us just as it 
was to-day." 

"Oh!" I cried, "heavenly father, make me worthy of these 
beautiful things, and help me to do my duty." 

I sat there a long time, thinking of what I had just passed 
through, and the beautiful things I had seen stood out before 



JOURNEYINGS IN THE SPIRIT REALMS. 8 7 

my wondering eyes in all their grandeur, and the beautiful 
influences which had been showered upon me by the angel 
band still clung to me, and I longed to keep it with me, and I 
thought, Oh, if we could live amid such heavenly influences, 
how different indeed would be our lives — and I prayed that 
this influence might never leave me, and that I might be able 
thereby to send out a ray of it to others to help brighten 
their lives. 



Magic, White and Black. 

A Lecture Delivered Before a Chicago Audience by 
C. W. Leadbeater, the Great Psychic, 
of London, England, 



WHITE AND BLACK MAGIC— ELEMENTALS— NATURE 
SPIRITS AND ANGELS— EVOCATION— TYPES OF MA- 
GICIANS—TALISMANS—SELFISHNESS OF BLACK 
MAGIC— ORIENTAL MAGICIANS— SOME SAFEGUARDS 
AGAINST EVIL. 

The dictionary definition of the word Magic is, "The use 
of supernatural means to produce preternatural results." In 
Theosophy we cannot agree with that definition, because we 
hold that nothing is supernatural, and that however unusual 
or curious any phenomenon may be, it happens in obedience 
to the laws of nature. We perfectly recognize that as yet 
man knows very few of these laws, and that consequently 
many things may happen that he cannot explain; but, reason- 
ing from analogy as well as from direct observation, we feel 
quite certain that the laws themselves are immutable, and 
that whenever anything to us inexplicable is produced, the 
inexplicability is due to our ignorance of the laws and not to 
any contravention of them. Our knowledge is as yet so very 
limited in so many ways, that it is not in the least remark- 
able that we should now and then come into contact with 
occurrences that we do not understand. We know only one 
small fraction of our world — just this lowest physical part of 
it; and even with that our acquaintance is in reality only 



88 MAGIC, WHITE AND BLACK. 

very partial and superficial. But the average man is pro- 
foundly unconscious of the extent of his ignorance; and so 
he is shocked and surprised at any manifestation which tran- 
scends the boundaries of his infinitesimal experience. 

With regard to this question of Magic many people will ex- 
press exactly the same doubt as they do with regard to Tel- 
epathy, Mind-Cure, Mesmerism, Apparitions, and Spiritual- 
ism; they will say, "Is there any such thing as magic?" 
There are always to be found those who deny the possibility 
of anything which is outside their own experience. We have 
never seen these things," they say, "and consequently we 
know that all who have seen them are either fools or knaves, 
either fraudulent or deluded.' It is useless to waste argu- 
ment upon people whose minds are in so undeveloped a con- 
dition as that; it is better to leave them undisturbed to wal- 
low in the self-satisfaction of their own invincible ignor- 
ance. They are in the position of the African king who was 
indignant at the shameless falsehood of the traveler who as- 
serted that in other lands water sometimes became solid. 
Ice was outside of his experience, and so he denied the possi- 
bility of its existence; and just at the same mental level are 
the people who ignorantly ridicule what they do not under- 
stand. 

If we wish to try to improve the definition given in the dic- 
tionary, we may describe magic as the employment of forces 
as yet not recognized to produce visible results. In very 
many cases it is the control of such forces by the human will. 
Once more there are persons who would deny that any forces 
can be directly controlled by the will, and once more it is 
simply a question of how much the person happens to know. 
The inexperienced but conceited man will deny anything and 
everything; the wiser man who has studied has learnt to be 
more cautious and so for idle assertion he substitutes in- 
quiry and investigation. The adoption of this latter attitude 
with regard to the production of physical results by as yet 
unrecognized forces will very speedily show that there are 
many undoubted instances of this, and that they may be con- 
nected by very easy gradations with phenomena which are 
quite common and readily accepted. 

WHITE AND BLACK MAGIC. 

If we accept some such definition of Magic as that sug- 
gested above, there arises the further question, what is 
meant by the adjectives white and black? In this associa- 



MAGIC, WHITE AND BLACK. 8 9 

tion they are simply synonymous with good and evil. The 
recognized forces of nature are no more good and evil in 
themselves than are the recognized forces of electricity, 
steam, or gunpowder. All of these things may be employed 
for good or ill according to the mental attitude of the man 
who employs them. Just as gunpowder may be usefully ap- 
plied to clear away the rocks which obstruct the channel at 
the entrance of the harbor, or maliciously used by the evil- 
disposed person to destroy the house of his enemy, so may 
the unrecognized magical forces be employed by wicked men 
for selfish purposes, or by the good man for the helping and 
shielding of his fellows. 

Let us see what some of these unrecognized forces are. 
Last Sunday when I was speaking to you about mesmerism I 
mentioned the possession by every man of a certain amount 
of nerve ether and also of a vital fluid which flowed along 
with this nerve ether. Both of these, you will remember, 
can be projected under the direction of the human will; so in 
that way mesmerism itself may claim to be a modified kind 
of magic, since in it these unseen forces are manipulated by 
the human will, and visible results'are undoubtedly produced 
thereby. The condition of the subject may be affected to a 
very considerable extent; not only may all sorts of delusion 
be produced, but the limbs may be made rigid and insensible 
to pain and the man may be thrown into a deep trance. So 
that we may really claim these two forces of vitality and 
nerve ether as among those which can be employed and 
have been employed by Magic. 

Another great force which is used perhaps more fre- 
quently than any other is that of the Elemental Essence. It 
will be impossible for me to turn aside from my subject in or- 
der to describe fully what Elemental Essence is, since that 
would require a whole lecture. I can therefore give but the 
slightest sketch of it now, and refer my hearers to the Theo- 
sophical manuals and text books, for fuller information. You 
will remember that when speaking to you on Reincarnation 
and on the various bodies of men, I explained how the ego 
when descending to a new birth drew round himself matter 
of the various planes, in order that later on he might build 
vehicles corresponding to each of these levels. It must be 
remembered that all this matter — like that which the ego 
draws to himself for his own use, and the great sea of matter 
which lies outside — is not dead, but instinct with life. This 
life is essentially divine, for there is no life which is not di- 



90 MAGIC, WHITE AND BLACK. 

vine; but it is nevertheless at a very much earlier stage of 
evolution than the life which manifests in humanity or in the 
animal and vegetable kingdom. We must then recognize 
that all this matter is charged with a kind of living essence; 
and the study of occultism enables us to distinguish between 
very many varieties of this strange living essence and to 
learn that the different kinds may be employed for different 
purposes in magic. The finer and more plastic matter of the 
astral and mental planes is very readily sensitive to the ac- 
tion of the human will; so that the living force contained in 
this essence is to a very great extent at the disposal of any- 
one who learns how to use it. 

ELE MENTALS. 

Sometimes we read in Theosophical literature of "Ele- 
mentals." Properly speaking the word applies only to tem- 
porary creations built up by the action of the human will out 
of this living essence and the matter in which it inheres. 
Such entities are of course only temporary and are in no 
sense of the word evolving beings. That is to say, the es- 
sence of which they are composed has an evolution of its own 
as essence; but the entity temporarily built out of it has no 
evolution as an entity, and no power to reincarnate. It may 
be described indeed as consisting for the time of a body and 
a soul, for the matter and its living essence makes a vehicle, 
which is energized by the thought which is thrown out; and 
the duration of this thought-form as a separate entity will 
depend entirely upon the strength of the thought force 
which is its ensouling principle and holds it together. As 
soon as that force dies away its body of astral or mental 
matter infused with elemental essence will disintegrate, and 
the essence and matter will simply return to the surrounding 
atmosphere from which they were drawn. These thought 
forms, however, may be exceedingly capable and forceful 
while they last; and their employment by the will of the 
thiixk^r is one of the commonest and yet one of the most 
effective of the acts of magic. An exceedingly useful and 
illuminative article on the subject of thought forms written 
by Mrs. Besant will be found in Lucifer for September, 1896. 
I should strongly recommend it to the careful study of all 
who are interested in this matter, as the colored illustra- 
tions which are there given will help the inquirer to a ready 
comprehension of the way in which such forces act. 



MAGIC, WHITE AND BLACK. 91 

NATURE SPIRITS AND ANGELS. 

We have also to consider another class of entities which 
are very frequently employed in magic; and this time we are 
dealing with real and evolving beings — not merely with tem- 
porary creations. There is a whole kingdom of vivid life 
which does not belong to our human line of evolution at all, 
but seems to be running parallel with it, and yet to be utiliz- 
ing this same world in which we live. This evolution con- 
tains all grades of intelligences, from entities at the level in 
that respect of our animal kingdom, to others who equal or 
even greatly surpass the highest intellectual power of man. 
This evolution does not appear normally to descend to the 
physical plane; its members, at any rate, never take upon 
themselves dense physical bodies such as ours. The great 
majority of those with whom we have to deal possess only 
astral bodies, although certainly some types come down to 
to the etheric part of the physical plane and clothe them- 
selves with its matter, thus bringing themselves nearer to 
the limit of ordinary human sight. There are vast hosts of 
these beings, and an almost infinite number of types and 
classes and tribes among them. Broadly speaking, we may 
divide them into two great classes, (A) Nature Spirits or 
Fairies, and (B) Angels or, as they are called in the East, 
Devas. This second class begins at a level corresponding 
to the human but reaches up to heights far beyond any that 
humanity has as yet touched, so that its connection with 
magic is naturally of the slightest kind and belongs solely 
to one of the classes of which we shall speak presently. The 
Nature Spirits have been called by very many different 
names at different periods and in various countries. We 
read of them as Fairies, Elves, Pixies, Kobolds, Sylphs, 
Gnomes, Salamanders, Undines, Brownies, or "Good People," 
and traditions of their occasional appearances exist in every 
country under heaven. They have usually been supposed to 
be merely the creations of popular superstition, and it is no 
doubt true that very much has been said of them which 
would not bear scientific investigation. Nevertheless it is 
quite true that such an evolution does exist, and that its 
members occasionally, though rarely, manifest themselves to 
human vision. Normally they have no connection whatever 
with humanity or its evolution, and the majority of them 
rather shun than court the presence of man, since his ill- 
regulated emotions, passions, and desires are to them a 



92 MAGIC, WHITE AND BLACK. 

source of much disturbance and acute discomfort. Never- 
theless now and then exceptional circumstances have 
brought some of them into direct contact and even friend- 
ship with man. 

Naturally they possess powers and methods of their own, 
and in many cases they can be either induced or compelled 
to put these powers at the service of the student of occult- 
ism. Although they are not as yet individualized, and in 
that respect correspond rather to the animal kingdom than 
to humanity, yet their intelligence is in many cases quite 
equal to that of man. They seem, however, to have usually 
but little sense of responsibility, and the will is generally 
somewhat less developed with them than it is with the aver- 
age man. They can therefore readily be dominated by the 
exercise of mesmeric powers, and can then be employed in 
very many ways to carry out the will of the magician. There 
are very many purposes for which they may be utilized, and 
so long as the tasks prescribed to them are within their 
power they will be faithfully and surely executed. All this 
will no doubt seem strange to many of you, but any student 
of the occult will confirm what I have said here as to the ex- 
istence of these beings and the possibility that they can be 
used in very many ways by one who understands them. 1 
have myself made a considerable study of this subject, 
and you must therefore pardon me if I appear to speak posi* 
tively and as a matter of course with regard to many things 
that for the majority of you would seem questionable or be- 
yond human knowledge. To give a full account of all the 
many classes of these Nature Spirits would be to write a 
kind of natural history of the astral plane, and in order to 
describe them all we should need many large volumes. Yet 
the man who wishes to deal fully and efficiently with what 
is called practical magic must not only be able to recognize 
immediately upon sight all these thousands of varieties but 
must also know which of them can most suitably be em- 
ployed for any special piece of work that he may have in 
hand. 

The forces to which I have referred are those most com- 
monly employed in any question of magic ; but in addition to 
them the occult student has at his command enormous re- 
serves of power of various sorts not yet known to the scien- 
tific world. There is an etheric pressure, just as there is an 
atmospheric pressure; but the scientific man will never be 
able to use this force, or even to demonstrate its existence, 



MAGIC, WHITE AND BLACK. 93 

until he can invent some substance which shall be impervi- 
ous to ether, so that he can construct a chamber or vessel 
out of which ether can be pumped, precisely as the air is 
withdrawn irom the reservoir of an air pump. There are 
methods known to occult science by which this can be done 
and so a tremendous etheric pressure can be reined in and 
utilized. Then there are also mighty electric and magnetic 
currents, which can be tapped and brought down to the 
physical plane by him who understands them; and an enor- 
mous amount of energy may be liberated by the mere pro- 
cess of transferring matter from one condition to another. 
So that along different lines there is much energy available 
in nature for the man who knows how to use it; and all of it 
is available for and readily controllable by the developed 
human will. One other point that must not be forgotten is 
that all around us stand those whom we call the dead — those, 
that is to say, who have only recently put off their physical 
bodies and are still hovering close about us in their astral 
vehicles. They may also be influenced, either mesmerically 
or by persuasion, just as those still in the flesh could be; 
and very many cases arise in which we have to take account 
of their action, and of the extent to which their control of 
the astral forces can be brought into play. 

We may usefully divide the subject of Magic into two great 
parts, according to the methods which it employs; and we 
may characterize these respectively as methods of Evoca- 
tion and Devocation — of command and of entreaty. 

EVOCATION. 

Let us consider the former first. Although it may act 
through many different channels, the one great force at the 
back of all magic of this type is the human will. By this the 
vitality and the nerve ether can be directed; by this all the 
varieties of elemental essence may be guided, selected and 
built into forms either simple or complex according to the 
work that they have to do. By this perfect magnetic control 
may be gained over any of the classes of Nature Spirits; by 
this also the wills of others, whether living or dead, may be 
so dominated that they become practically but tools in the 
hands of the magicians. Indeed it is scarcely possible to fix 
the limits of the power of the human will when properly di- 
rected; it is so much more far-reaching than the ordinary 
man ever supposes, that the results gained by its means ap- 



94 MAGIC, WHITE AND BLACK. 

pear to him astounding and supernatural. The study of this 
subject brings one gradually to the realization of what was 
meant by the remark that if faith were only sufficient it 
could remove mountains and cast them into the sea; and 
even this oriental description seems scarcely exaggerated 
when one examines undoubted and authenticated instances 
of what has been achieved by this marvelous power. 

But in order that this mighty engine of the will may work 
effectively, the magician must possess the most perfect con- 
fidence. This is gained in various ways, according to the 
type to which the mind of the magician belongs. Broadly 
speaking, we may classify the magicians under four heads, 
though of course in a detailed account we should have to take 
into consideration the various subdivisions and modifica- 
tions of these. 

TYPES OF MAGICIANS. 

First there is a type of man who possesses such iron deter- 
mination and such entire confidence in himself and in his 
power to dominate nature by the mere force of his spirit that 
he gains his end by the mere determined insistance upon it. 
He realizes that his will is the true motive force, and he 
neither knows nor cares through what intermediary agencies 
this will may work. He is careless and may even be quite 
ignorant as to methods; he simply rides down all opposi- 
tion, as it were, by brute force and does that which he wishes 
simply through the tremendous force of his unalterable con- 
viction that it can be done and shall be done. Such magi* 
cians are very few, but they undoubtedly exist; and if not be- 
nevolently inclined they may be exceedingly formidable. 
They do not need a method by which to gain confidence, they 
appear to possess it in their very nature. 

"The second type of man gains the necessary confidence 
to command from his very thorough knowledge of the sub- 
ject with which he is dealing and of the forces which he is 
employing. He may be called the scientific magician, for 
he has made a close study of astral and mental physics, he 
knows all about the different types of elemental essence and 
the various classes of Nature Spirits, so that In every case 
he is able to use exactly the most appropriate means to ob- 
tain the result which he desires with the least possible exer* 
tion or difficulty. His thorough familiarity with his subject 
makes him feel perfectly at home with it and perfectly ca- 



MAGIC, WHITE AND BLACK. 95 

pable of dealing with any possible emergencies which may 
arise. Many such men also make a great study of appropri- 
ate times and seasons as well as of appropriate forces; they 
know exactly at what moment it will be easiest to produce a 
certain result, and so they gain what they need with the least 
possible expenditure. This whole question of times and sea- 
sons and of periodical influences which wax and wane, is one 
of extreme interest; but it would take us too far from the 
main line of our subject if we were to plunge into that this 
evening; for it would mean the opening up and the review of 
the whole question of Astrology. It is sufficient for us for 
the moment if we understand that there are times when, and 
conditions under which, certain efforts can much more easily 
be made, so that what can be done only with extreme diffi- 
culty, or perhaps even cannot be done at all, at one time, may 
be managed with comparative ease at another. This natu- 
rally implies the existence of influences, planetary or other- 
wise, which are acting upon and within our world; and the 
exhaustive knowledge of all this and of their combinations 
would naturally be necessary for the worker in practical 
magic. 

Another type of magician attains the confidence neces- 
sary to insure obedience to his commands by means of faith 
or devotion. He has so firm a faith in his leader or deity, 
that he is absolutely certain that any command pronounced 
in that name must be instantly obeyed. I am not speaking 
merely of results which may be produced upon the mental 
and upon the astral planes, but also of quite definite and 
visible physical effects. You have only to read ecclesiastical 
history to come across many kinds of exceedingly wonderful 
cures of physical diseases w T hich have been produced through 
just such determined efforts of faith as those to which I have 
referred. The authenticated accounts of the cures at Lourdes 
in France, and at Knock in Ireland, undoubtedly show that 
a great many ills, even of purely physical type, will yield be- 
fore determined faith. Any man who has in this way ob« 
tained sufficient confidence will find his will so much 
strengthened thereby that he will be able to produce the 
most unexpected results. It should be remembered that it is 
his own will which brings the satisfactory result — not the in- 
tervention of the Greater One whose name he speaks. I 
know quite well that many most earnest Christians would at- 
tribute the bealing directly to Christ, in whose name it was 



96 MAGIC, WHITE AND BLACK. 

performed; but deeper study of the subject will show them 
that cures precisely similar and quite as astonishing have 
been performed by equally earnest men in the name of Lord 
Buddha, or in the name of Krishna, or of any other of the 
great leaders and teachers of the world. It is the tremen- 
dous faith that gives the power; in what or in whom is the 
faith matters but little. The greater person whose name is 
invoked may not ever be aware of the circumstances; al- 
though if he does know and does in any way interfere we 
may be sure that it will rather be by the strengthening of the 
faith and will of his follower than by any special effort of his 
own power. Yet another class consists of those who believe 
in the efficacy of certain ceremonies, or of certain formulae. 
For them and in their hands the formulae or the ceremonies 
undoubtedly are effective; but in most cases it is not because 
of any inherent virtue which the forms possess, but because 
of the entire confidence of the magician that when he em- 
ploys them the result must inevitably ensue. If you read 
any account of the working of the medieval alchemists, you 
will see that they certainly had very many of such ceremo- 
nies, and that the majority of them would have considered 
themselves incapable of obtaining their results without the 
surroundings to which they were accustomed. They wore 
robes of certain types, they used certain Kabalistic figures, 
they waved round their heads swords magnetized for certain 
purposes; they burnt certain drugs or sprinkled certain es- 
sences. Now it is quite true that some of these things have 
a certain potency of their own, but in the vast majority of 
cases all that they do is to give perfect confidence to the per- 
former and so to strengthen his will to the requisite point- 
He has been told by his teachers or his scriptures that all 
this paraphernalia is effective, and that in using it he will 
certainly succeed. The man by himself might possibly waver 
and feel frightened; but with the proper robes and signs and 
weapons he feels so certain of success that he goes straight 
through without hesitation. 

A magician of any one of these types has at his disposal, 
the forces of three levels — the mental, the astral, and the 
etheric physical. All of these can be directed by the human 
will, and in using any one of them a man will undoubtedly 
set in motion certain vibrations in the others also. The sci- 
entific magician will of course choose among these, and so 
will save himself much exertion. Along the other lines it is 



MAGIC, WHITE AND BLACK. 9 7 

probable that the performer nearly always sets in motion 
very much more force and power, and very much more en- 
ergy than is at all necessary for the object in hand; never- 
theless he also attains his results, though it may be at the ex- 
penditure of a great deal of superfluous disturbance and un- 
necessary fatigue to himself. Without going into details, it 
is not difficult to see how the man who understands would 
make choice of his materials. If he were dealing with a man 
of great intellectual development and keen receptivity on the 
mental plane, it would obviously be better to approach him 
on that level by means of definite thought, or through the 
services of the Nature Spirits abiding there. If, on the 
other hand, he were dealing with a man whose life was in- 
tensely emotional, he would find it probably easier to ap- 
proach him and to impress him along that line and conse- 
quently he would send thought forms veiled in astral matter 
or would employ the services of the lower type of Nature 
Spirits whose bodies are built of the matter of that plane. 
Again if he were dealing with a man of grossly material 
type, one who had dipped very deeply into the physical 
plane, it might obviously be better to employ the forces and 
intelligences which clothe themselves most readily in phys- 
ical matter. But in all these cases alike the motive power 
at the back is simply the indomitable will of the operator, 
through whatever channels he may find it best to work. 

We find abundant traces of this magic of command in the 
ceremonies connected with almost every religion in the 
world. You may remember that in speaking of Buddhism I 
drew your attention to a manifestation of it which appears in 
the Pirit Ceremony ; and you will see many signs of it in the 
accounts given to us of old Egyptian ceremonies. Indeed we 
have obvious relics of it much nearer to us than that, for you 
may see them appearing again and again in the ritual of the 
Christian church. It is well known to all students of practi- 
cal occultism that of all substances water is one of the most 
easily influenced. It may very readily be induced to absorb 
influences of this particular type, and will retain this un- 
impaired for a long period of time. We see a close analogy 
to this on the physical plane, for we know that water which 
has stood uncovered in a bedroom during the night is totally 
unfit for drinking purposes, because it has eagerly absorbed 
into itself all the impurities cast off during the night from 
the physical bodies of the sleepers. It is found that it may 



98 MAGIC, WHITE AND BLACK. 

equally readily be charged with magnetism of any type, 
either for good or evil purposes, as will be seen by the ac- 
counts of various mesmeric experiments in almost any of the 
books devoted to that subject. This fact seems to have been 
perfectly well known to those who established the ceremo> 
nies of the early Christian church. Even at the present day 
upon entering any Roman Catholic church we find at the 
door a stoup of holy water as it is called ; and it will be ob- 
served that the faithful as they enter dip their fingers into 
this water and make with it the sign of the cross upon their 
foreheads or breasts. If interrogated as to the meaning of 
this, they will tell us that it is in order to drive away from 
them evil thoughts or feelings and to purify them for the 
services in which they are about to take part. The ignorant 
and boastful Protestant probably regards this as an instance 
of degrading superstition; but, as usual, that shows only that 
he knows nothing whatever of the subject. Any student of 
occultism who will take the trouble to read in the Roman 
prayer book the office for the making of holy water cannot 
fail to be struck with the fact that here is undoubtedly a defi- 
nite magical ceremony. For the purpose of the consecration 
of holy water the priest is directed to take clean water and 
clean salt; and he commences operations by a process which 
is called the exorcising of the salt and the water. For this 
purpose he has to recite certain forms which, though by 
courtesy they are called prayers, are in reality adjurations 
of the strongest type. He adjures the salt and the water 
successively in the most determined language, commanding 
that all evil influences shall be driven out from them and 
that they shall be left perfectly clean and pure; and as ne 
does this he is directed again and again to lay his hand upon 
the vessels containing the salt and the water. Evidently the 
whole ceremony is simply a mesmeric one, and the objection- 
able influence, if there be any, would be very thoroughly 
driven out by the time the priest had finished his devotions. 
Then having purified his elements — having removed from 
them anything that might be objectionable — he proceeds to 
magnetize them vigorously for a particular and definite pur- 
pose. Once more he recites the most determined adjura- 
tion and is directed again and again as he uses these power- 
ful words to make over the elements with his hand the sign 
of the cross, holding strongly in the mind the will to bless. 
This of course means that he is saturating both the salt and 



MAGIC, WHITE AND BLACK. 99 

the water with his own magnetic influence specially charged 
and directed by his will for this certain purpose — that wher- 
ever this water shall be sprinkled all evil thought or feeling 
shall be driven away before it. Then with one final effort 
he casts the salt into the water in the form of a cross, and 
the decoction is completed. 

Now I have no doubt that there are many priests who sim- 
ply go through all this ceremonial as the merest matter of 
form, without putting any thought or strength into it. But 
I also know that there are many others to whom the cere- 
mony is intensely real — men who do throw very much 
strength and force into their proceedings; and naturally in 
their case the water is heavily charged with powerful mag- 
netism and a very decided magnetic result is produced. I 
myself have'very frequently performed this little ceremony 
as a priest of what was called the Ritualistic Section of the 
Church of England; and I can certainly testify that in my 
own case I believed vividly in the efficacy of the operation, 
and I have no doubt therefore that the water which I magnet- 
ized was really effective for the purposes intended. Any 
one who is physically sensitive may easily tell upon entering 
a Catholic church and just touching the holy water with the 
hand, whether or not the priest who consecrated it put real 
strength and thought into his work. 

Consecrated water is employed in many other of the 
church's ceremonies. In baptism, for example, the water is 
carefully blessed before the ceremony commences; and even 
in the services of the Church of England you will still find 
traces of this, for the priest prays that the water shall be 
sanctified to the mystical washing away of sin, and as he 
utters these words it is usual for him to make the sign of the 
cross in the water which is to be employed. It will be re- 
membered also that churches and burial grounds are espe- 
cially consecrated or set apart for a holy purpose and there 
also a special effort is made to scatter good influences so that 
all who enter shall thereby be brought into a proper and de- 
votional frame of mind. Almost every object utilized in the 
service of the church was originally consecrated in the same 
manner; the vessels of the altar, the vestments of the priest, 
the bells, the incense — all had their special services of bless- 
ing. In the case of the bells they were permeated with cer- 
tain rates of vibration and a certain type of magnetism, the 
idea being that the thoughts and feelings which these sug- 



100 MAGIC, WHITE AND BLACK. 

gested should be spread abroad wherever the sound of the 
bells traveled — a perfectly scientific idea from the point of 
view of the higher occult physics. In the same way the in- 
cense was especially blessed, in order that this blessing 
might be showered wherever its perfume penetrated, and 
that its scent might drive away all evil thoughts or influences 
from the church in which it is used. 

Mesmeric influence is again evident in the ceremony of 
the ordination of priests ; for it will be remembered that not 
only does the bishop lay his hands upon the head of the can- 
didate, but all the priests who are present also converge 
their forces upon him and lay their hands upon his head also. 
Undoubtedly when all present were thoroughly in earnest 
this would be no mere outward sign but would pass on from 
one to the other an exceedingly strong influence of devotion 
and loyalty and would help to confirm within the mind of 
the newly ordained priest the confidence as to the powers 
which had been given to him. The student of occultism can- 
not but see that all these are manifestly survivals from a 
time when practical magic was thoroughly understood in the 
church. There is hardly a single ceremony among those 
used either in the Greek, Roman, or the Anglican churches 
which has not behind it some true occult significance, though 
in these days so many people go through them merely as a 
matter of form and never even think that there may be 
something real and weighty behind them. In these older 
days people were not only less skeptical but also less ignor- 
ant and those who arranged the ritual of the church knew 
very well what they were doing. 

TALISMANS. 

This leads us to consider the question of talismans. 
There used to be a universal belief that a jewel or almost any 
object might be charged mesmerically with good or evil in- 
fluences ; and though this idea would in modern days be re- 
garded as a mere superstition, it is nevertheless an undoubt- 
ed fact that such influence may be stored in a physical ob, 
ject, and may remain there for a very long period of time. A 
man can undoubtedly pour his influence into such an object, 
so that this definite rate of vibration will radiate from it pre- 
cisely as light radiates out from the sun. Naturally the in- 
fluence put into such an object might be either good or evil, 
helpful or harmful. In very many cases such magnetic ac- 
tion resembles that of a cordial — that is to say that it is 



MAGIC, WHITE AND BLACK. 101 

highly stimulant; in other cases it is arranged for the special 
purpose of calming and soothing the subject so that he may 
overcome his fears or his agitation. Such a talisman may 
be magnetized, for example, with the special object of 
strengthening a man to resist a certain temptation — say 
that towards sensuality; and there is no doubt whatever that 
when properly charged it would have a very powerful influ- 
ence in the direction intended. Here we have at once the 
philosophy of relics. Every one of us has his especial rates 
of mental and astral vibration, and any object which has 
been long in contact with us will be permeated with these 
rates of vibration, and capable of radiating them in turn, or 
of communicating them with especial energy to any other 
person who may wear the object or bring it into close con- 
tact with himself. Anything therefore which has been in 
close contact with some great saint or some especially devel- 
oped person will bear with it much of his own individual 
magnetism, and will naturally tend to reproduce in the man 
or woman who wears it something of the same state of feel- 
ing which existed in the man from which it came. I have 
myself known of many instances in which such a talisman 
was very effective — in which, for example, it was possible by 
its means to calm and soothe persons prostrated by nervous 
disease, so that they were enabled to gain the repose of 
which they stood in such desperate need. We must never 
forget also that in very many cases the faith of the wearer 
in the talisman also comes into play and contributes its 
quota to the result. If a person is impressively informed by 
someone in whom he has perfect confidence that a certain 
talisman will undoubtedly produce a certain result, then his 
own firm expectation of that result tends very much to bring 
it about; but nevertheless and quite apart from man's faith 
in it, it is possible for a talisman to produce an effect even 
upon those who do not know of its presence. When charged 
by a really powerful mesmerist certain charms will retain 
the magnetism for a very long period of time. I have myself 
seen in the British Museum in London, Gnostic charms which 
still radiated quite a powerful and perceptible influence, al- 
though they must have been magnetized at least 1700 years 
ago; and some Egyptian Scarabosi are still effective even 
though they are much older than that. Naturally here also 
it is possible to charge an objsct for evil as well as good; 
and any one who will take the trouble to read Ennemoser's 



102 MAGIC, WHITE AND BLACK. 

History of Magic will find various instances quoted therein. 

Another side of the subject is that connected with charms 
or mantrams. These are forms of words by means of which 
certain occult results are supposed to be achieved. Here 
also, as in the case of the talisman, definite effects are some- 
times undoubtedly produced; and also as with the talisman 
this result may be produced in either of two ways, or both 
of them may contribute towards it. In the great majority of 
cases the formula does nothing beyond strengthening the 
will of the person who uses it, and impressing upon the mind 
of the subject the result which it is desired to achieve. The 
confidence of the operator that his formula must produce its 
effect, and the belief of the subject that such effect will be 
produced are frequently quite sufficient for the purpose. I 
ought, however, to mention that there is a much rarer type 
of mantram in which the sounds themselves produce a defi- 
nite effect. Naturally each sound sets up a definite vibra- 
tion, and an orderly succession of such vibrations following 
one another according to the predetermined scheme, may be 
so arranged as to evoke definite feelings or emotions or 
thoughts within the man. Many of the Sanskrit mantrams 
used in India are of this nature. It is obvious that in this 
case the charm would be untranslatable, that it must be em- 
ployed in the original language and that it must be correctly 
pronounced by one who understands how it was intended to 
be sounded. On the other hand it is not in the least neces- 
sary for the success of such a mantram that the person who 
uses it should understand the meaning of the words, or even 
that the sounds should make intelligible words at all. In- 
stances in which such succession of sounds do not make in- 
telligible words will be found in some of the Gnostic writings. 

It must never be forgotten that along whatever line the 
magician works, by whatever means he obtains his confi- 
dence, the forces at his command may be employed for evil 
or for good according to the intention which lies behind 
them. We have spoken chiefly of the pleasanter side of the 
subject, dealing principally with cases in which the will o* 
the operator was employed in order to help; but we must 
not forget that there have been and are cases of evil will and 
it is important for us to understand this, because of the fact 
that such will may often be unconsciously exercised. That, 
however, belongs to the practical application of the subject 
to ourselves with which 1 hope to deal next week when 
speaking upon the Use and Abuse of Psychic Powers. 



MAGIC, WHITE AND BLACK. 103 

INVOCATION. 

Let us turn now to the second type of magic, that which 
works by invocation — that which does not command but per- 
suades. It will at once be seen that this type of magic has 
at its command fewer resources than the other. Here the 
suppliant himself does nothing; he simply begs or bribes 
some one else to do something. The thought form therefore 
is not at his command nor are the various forms of forces 
such as etheric pressure or the use of the elemental essence. 
He confines himself to obtaining the services of definite liv- 
ing entities whether human or nonhuman. Efforts in this 
direction are made much more commonly than we might at 
first sight suppose; for you will observe that whenever a 
man tries to produce a result to obtain anything for himself 
or to have facts or conditions modified by means of some 
agency outside of the physical plane, he is in reality using 
invocatory magic, although no such name may have ever 
entered his mind. A very great deal of the ordinary kind of 
prayer for selfish purposes is in reality an example of this. 
I am of course speaking here only of that lower variety of 
prayer to which alone the name can properly be applied — 
that which definitely asks for something. The word prayer 
is derived from the Sanskrit Prashna, through the Latin 
Precor and is connected with the German Fragen; so that its 
original and proper meaning can be only a definite request. 
Very often people quite incorrectly apply the name of prayer 
to what is in reality meditation or worship — the contempla- 
tion of the highest ideal known to the worshiper and the en- 
deavor to raise his own mind and heart upwards towards that 
object of worship. But the more ordinary prayer for definite 
and frequently for physical gains, is certainly an attempt to 
draw down influences from higher planes to produce visible 
results, and so comes clearly within our definition of magic. 
It will frequently happen when two nations are engaged in 
a war, that each of them will pray for its own success and 
for the destruction of the opposing armies; and this is cer- 
tainly an effort to enlist invisible forces upon its side. For* 
tunately, however, this idea of calling in extraneous influ- 
ences may be used in a good as well as evil way, and natu- 
rally we find that many efforts are made in this way to in- 
voke from above some help for the soul. 

Perhaps the most striking instance of this is to be found ia 
the life of the Brahman. The whole of that life is practically 



104 MAGIC, WHITE AND BLACK. 

one continuous prayer ; for to every one of his acts, even the 
smallest, a special form of petition is assigned. Though very 
much more elaborate and detailed, it is somewhat on the 
lines of the form which is given for us in certain Catholic 
convents, where the novice is instructed to pray every time 
that he eats that his soul may be nourished with the bread 
of life; every time that he washes his hands to form the aspi- 
ration that his soul also may be kept pure and clean; every 
time that he enters a church to pray that his whole life may 
be one long service; every time that he sows a seed, to think 
of the seed of the word of God which is to be sown in the 
first place in his own heart and which he in turn is then to 
sow in the hearts of others; and so on. The life of the Brah- 
man is precisely that life, except that it is on a very much 
larger scale and is carried into very much greater detail. No 
one can doubt that he who really and honestly carries out all 
these directions must be very deeply and constantly affected 
by it. 

We shall observe that although the invocatory magician ig 
much more limited in his field of action that the one who pro 
ceeds to command, he has nevertheless the choice of several 
classes of entities to whom his appeal can be directed. He 
may beg help, for example, from Angels, from Nature Spir- 
its, or from the dead. We know how frequently and how 
readily our Roman Catholic friends invoke help from the 
guardian angels whem they believe to be always about them. 
That is undoubtedly an effort at invocatory magic, and it may 
in many cases obtain a definite response; although whether 
it does so or not, at any rate a result is produced by the con- 
fidence of the one who offers the prayer in the efficacy of his 
supplication. That is the good side of such magic; but it has 
always a very real and very serious evil side. We shall find 
that showing itself with painful prominence in the Voodoo 
or Obeah ceremonies of the negroes. In these the magicians 
are endeavoring to invoke outside aid in order to work evil 
upon the physical plane; and it is unquestionable that they 
sometimes meet with a considerable amount of success in 
their nefarious efforts. I have myself seen a good deal of 
this in South America, and am therefore able personally to 
testify that results are produced along this most undesirable 
line of activity. The same thing may occasionally be seen 
in India, more especially among the hill tribes. There it is 
by no means uncommon to find tribal gods worshiped. And 



MAGIC, WHITE AND BLACK. 105. 

the worship very frequently takes the shape of propitiatory 
sacrifies, in return for which the tribal deity undoubtedly 
sometimes produce results upon the physical plane. You 
will read, for example, of villages in which all goes well so 
long as the village god receives his accustomed offerings; but 
the moment that those regular meals are intermitted trouble 
instantly manifests in some way or other. I myself heard of 
one case in which spontaneous fires broke out in the various 
huts of the village as soon as they neglected to look after 
their tribal deity in the usual way. In such cases there is 
undoubtedly an entity posing as the deity — an entity who en- 
joys the worship paid to him or finds real pleasure and profit 
in the sacrifices which are offered. It will be noticed that 
such sacrifices are usually of two kinds, either there is a sac- 
rifice of some living creature in which blood is poured out, 
or else food of some kind, and preferably flesh food, is burnt 
so that the fumes of it may arise. This distinctly implies 
that the tribal deity is a very low grade of entity possessing 
a vehicle upon the etheric portion of the physical plane — a 
vehicle through which he can absorb these physical fumes 
and either draw definite nourishment from them or expe- 
rience pleasure from partaking of them. It may be taken a3 
an absolutely certain rule that every deity under whatever 
name he may masquerade, who claims blood sacrifices or 
burnt sacrifices is only a Nature Spirit of an exceedingly low 
type ; for it is only to such an entity that such abominations 
could by any possibility be pleasing. 

It will be remembered that in the earlier days of the Jew- 
ish religion horrible holocausts of this nature were fre- 
quently offered; but as we come down nearer to the present 
age and the Jewish race has taken its place in civilization, 
we find that such sacrifices have naturally been discontinued. 
It is surely scarcely necessary to insist upon the fact that no 
developed being of any sort, no angel or deva could for one 
moment have exacted or consented to receive any form of 
offering which involved death and suffering. No beneficent 
deity has ever yet delighted in the foul scent and fumes of 
blood; and the higher types of religion have consistently 
avoided such horrors. 

SELFISHNESS OF BLACK MAGIC. 

The distinguishing characteristic of that evil side of Maghs 
which has usually been called "black" is that its object is en- 
tirely selfish. There are many cases in which it is nothing 



106 MAGIC, WHITE AND BLACK. 

more than this — that is to say in which its object is not to 
do evil for .evil's sake, hut simply to obtain for the possessor 
of the powers whatever he may happen to desire at the mo- 
ment. Much of the witchcraft of primitive tribes is of this 
nature, and here also there is no doubt whatever that a cer- 
tain measure of success frequently attends the efforts of the 
magician. I have myself seen instances of this, and indeed 
I once took the trouble to learn quite an elaborate ritual of 
this nature, which, if put into practice, would have given me 
the services of an entity which undertook to procure what- 
ever its coadjutor might require. Not only would it furnish 
him with boundless wealth, but it would also carry out his 
wishes with regard to either his friends or his enemies. 
From what I myself saw in connection with other practition- 
ers, I know that these offers could certainly be made good 
up to very high limits ; but the conditions required were such 
that it would have been quite impossible for any right think- 
ing man to go further into the matter. The ritual required 
was quite easy of accomplishment, but the agreement with 
the entity would have had to be cemented with human blood 
in the first instance, and the creature would afterwards have 
needed regular food involving the sacrifice of lower forms of 
life. Much more of such magic exists in many parts of the 
world than is usually suspected. On the other hand without 
such horrors as were involved in the type just mentioned, 
there are many very interesting developments of it. 

It is no uncommon thing to find in the East men who 
have inherited from their fathers the services of some non- 
human entity, who in consideration of an occasional trifling 
provision of food will perform small phenomena of various 
kinds for the person to whom it is especially attached. Usu- 
ally there are curious restrictions connected with the com- 
pact. Almost invariably the human partner in this bond is 
bound to give to no one the name or description of his unseen 
coadjutor; and oddly enough in a large number of cases the 
condition is attached that no money, or not more than a fixed 
and nominal amount may ever be obtained by the coadjutor's 
help or accepted for any exhibition of his peculiar powers. 
I remember, for example, a man possessing such a partner 
who was brought to me while in the East. In this case the 
entity attached showed his power principally by bringing to 
his human partner any objects that might be indicated, in 
precisely the same way that such things are frequently 



MAGIC, WHITE AND BLACK. 107 

brought at a Spiritualistic seance. Fortunately, however, 
one of the stipulations which formed part of their agreement 
was that the unseen partner should never be asked to bring 
anything which was not honestly the property of his friend 
on the physical plane; otherwise a system of wholesale rob- 
bery would have been perfectly easy, and it would have been 
absolutely impossible to trace or punish the thefts. The 
example of this power which was shown to me was quite con- 
clusive. I went with the magician into a fruiterer's shop and 
bought a selection of fruit of various kinds, and had it laid 
aside for me until I should send to fetch it. All that was re- 
quired was that the magician should see the fruit, so that he 
might know exactly what there was. Then driving directly 
home with my magician — of course leaving the fruit behind 
me in the shop — we asked whether he would be able to pro- 
duce for us the various items of the purchase in any order 
that we required". He seemed quite confident of this, and 
indeed the result showed that his trust in his unseen friend 
was fully justified. The man belonged distinctly to the lower 
classes and seemed quite uneducated. He wore no clothing 
whatever excepting a small loin cloth so that it would be ut- 
terly impossible to suppose that he had somehow concealed 
some fruit about his person. We sat upon a flat roof with 
nothing but the sky above us, and yet each fruit as we asked 
for it was instantly thrown down among us as though it had 
fallen from that sky. In this way the whole of our purchase 
was duly delivered to us, in the order in which we called for 
it; and that although we were at a distance of some miles 
from the shop in which it had undoubtedly been left. 

ORIENTAL MAGICIANS. 

Very many of the more inexplicable feats of the Indian 
jugglers are performed under some such arrangement as 
this. Of course I am perfectly aware that any clever Euro- 
pean juggler can entirely deceive the eyes of the average 
man and can produce results of the most wonderful nature 
by methods which are entirely inexplicable to the untrained. 
Nevertheless there are certain definite limits as to what can 
be done in this direction; and for the production of many of 
the feats of the occidental conjurer a considerable amount of 
machinery is required, and often a particular position or ar- 
rangement of his audience. The Oriental juggler has to 
work under exceedingly different conditions. His perform- 
ances are usually in the open air, even upon the stone pave* 



108 MAGIC, WHITE AND BLACK. 

ment of a courtyard and in the midst of an excited crowd 
which presses closely upon him on every side. It will read- 
ily be seen that under circumstances such as those many of 
the resources of his European competitor would not be avail- 
able. No doubt most men have heard of the celebrated 
mango trick in which a tree grows, or appears to grow, from 
a seed before the eyes of the spectators, and even bears 
fruit which is handed round and tasted. Then again there 
is the basket trick in which a child is concealed under the 
basket and then apparently cut to pieces, though when the 
basket is raised it is found to be empty and the child comes 
running in quite unharmed from behind the spectators. 
And we read how in some cases a rope is thrown up into the 
air and appears to remain miraculously suspended, the con- 
juror himself, and usually one of his assistants, climbing up 
the rope and disappearing into space. Now some of these 
feats are manifestly impossible; and on inquiring more close* 
ly into the matter we find that the phenomena described are 
produced by means of what is commonly called glamor — a 
kind of power of wholesale mesmerism without the usual 
preliminaries of passes or of trance. That this is the way 
in which some of these tricks are performed I have myself 
proved by various experiments ; so that we need not consider 
any of these under our present head of invocatory magic — 
though it is possible that in some cases this power of glamor 
is exercised not by the conjuror himself, but by the unseen 
partner who has at his command the various resources of the 
astral plane. Many tricks on a much smaller scale than the 
above however, appear to be performed directly by the astral 
coadjutor. I recollect, for example, a little experiment of 
which I was a witness, which I think must have belonged to 
this category. Once more our magician wore almost noth- 
ing in the way of clothing, and therefore could not have con- 
cealed about him any apparatus by which his marvels could* 
be performed. I was asked to produce a silver coin and to 
lay it upon the palm of my hand. I held it towards the ma- 
gician who breathed upon it but did not touch it, and then 
motioned me back to my seat some fifteen feet away. I was 
then instructed to cover this coin with my other hand, and 
as I did so the juggler began to mutter rapidly some incom- 
prehensible words. Instantly I felt tne sense of something 
exceedingly cold swelling between my hands and forcing 
them apart. In a moment or two this curious cold mass be- 



MAGIC, WHITE AND BLACK. 109 

gan to stir between my hands, and I opened them to see what 
was there. To my horror I found that a huge black scorpion 
had taken the place of the coin. Instinctively I threw him to 
the ground, and after erecting his tail angrily he scuttled 
away. Another man present went through exactly the same 
performance, except that in his case as he opened his hands 
a small but very active snake was found neatly coiled up be- 
tween them. Now this was by no means a performance of 
the same nature as the production of a living rabbit out of 
one's hat by the ordinary juggler; for in this case the con- 
jurer was some fifteen feet away, and the coin was obviously 
a coin and nothing else after we had withdrawn far beyond 
his reach. The result might have been produced by the 
same power of glamor to which I have previously referred; 
but certain circumstances connected with it make that to 
my mind highly improbable, and I suspect it to be a case of 
genuine substitution by some astral entity. 

Another curious little case of the employment of this sort 
of traditional magic by a man quite uneducated and entirely 
ignorant of the methods by which it worked, came under my 
notice some years later. It happened that I had received a 
somewhat severe wound from which the blood was pouring 
plentifully. A passing coolie hastily snatched a leaf from a 
shrub at the roadside, pressed it for a moment to the wound 
and muttered half a dozen words, and the flow of blood in- 
stantly and entirely ceased. Naturally I asked the man how 
he had done this, but he was quite unable to give any satis- 
factory reply. All he could say was that this charm which 
he was forbidden to disclose had been handed down in his 
family for two generations, and his belief was that there was 
a spirit of some sort summoned by the charm, who produced 
the required result. I inquired whether the leaf selected had 
any part in the success of his experiment, but he answered 
that any leaf, or a fragment of paper or cloth would have 
done equally as well. He evidently believed that the effect 
was wholly due to the form of words employed; and it may 
have been that it was his own confidence in this which en- 
abled his will to produce the physical result. 

In none of the cases which I have described was there any- 
thing especially evil or selfish about the magic employed; 
but I fear that there are very many instances in which the 
work done in such ways is much less innocent. 

Many of the witch stories of medieval times and the curi- 



110 MAGIC, WHITE AND BLACK. 

cms supposed compacts with the devil were probably exam- 
ples of the black art on a lower scale. All of this may be 
paralleled in certain parts of the world at the present day; 
and the wiseacres who dismiss all accounts of such things as 
merely superstitious fancy are, as usual, speaking of that 
which they do not in the least understand. There is, how- 
ever, no need that any should be nervous with regard to such 
performances, or should fear that they may be injured in 
this way by those whose enmity they have incurred. No 
doubt results are produced, for example, by the Voodoo or 
Obeah enchantments among the negroes ; but it is very rarely 
indeed that the practitioners are able to affect the incredu- 
lous white man. There are cases in which this has been 
done; but it should be remembered that it can only be done 
when the evil from without finds something in the victim 
upon which it can act. The man whose soul is pure and 
strong cannot be touched by any such machinations. Thus 
evil thoughts and practices denoted by envy and hatred may 
work harm among odc of two lines. They may either pro- 
duce fear in the victim and so throw him into a pitiable con- 
dition in which disease and evil of many sorts may very 
readily descend upon him. 

SAFEGUARDS. 

The man who is perfectly fearless would have a very much 
greater capability of resisting all such things, precisely as 
the man who has no fear of contagious disease is very much 
less likely to be affected by it than the man who is always in 
terror of it. Any clairvoyant who watches the conditions 
produced both in the astral body and in the etheric part of 
the physical vehicle by nervousness and fear will understand 
quite well why this should be, and will see that the immun- 
ity of the fearless man is quite readily explicable on purely 
scientific grounds. Another and even more deadly way in 
which such forces may act upon a person for evil is that they 
may stir up within him vibrations of the same nature as their 
own. So if the man has within himself the seeds of envy, 
jealousy, hatred, sensuality, these feelings may be roused to 
the point of frenzy and he may be induced in that way to 
commit actions on which in his calmer moments he would 
look with horror. But purity of thought guards a man en- 
tirely from such dangers, and it is therefore quite unneces- 
sary that any man should be nervous with regard to the ef- 
fects which may be produced upon him by others. A very 



MAGIC, WHITE AND BLACK. Ill 

far more real danger is that we may ourselves unconsciously 
yield to such undesirable feelings with regard to other peo- 
ple, and so may, without especial intention, be causing evii 
results for them. That is a much more imminent peril, and 
one against which we can perfectly guard ourselves only by 
seeing to it that no thought of malice, or anger, of envy, or of 
jealousy shall for an instant be allowed to harbor itself with- 
in our hearts. 

For the rest, the man who is pure and true gives no handle 
for any evil influences to seize, no door for its entrance into 
his heart. If his life and his thought be in harmony with the 
Divine Will, then he may be very certain that no black ma- 
gician in the world can harm him. Our danger is not in the 
least that we shall be injured, but far more that by want of 
control over ourselves, our own thoughts and desires, we may 
sometimes do harm to others. This practical side of this 
subject, however, belongs more especially to our topic for 
next week, "The Use and Abuse of Psychic Powers." 



Tangled Links in Life's Chain, 

A Search and Research for Truth. 

Pre=existence, Metempsychosis, Transmigration, Re= 

incarnation, Re=embodyment, Re=births, 

Ego=Rotation, by Dr. J. M. Peebles. 

Poets are prophets. They are inspired. Some poet, unbe- 
known to us, breathed these beautiful lines: 

" 'Tis somewhere told in Eastern story, 

That those who loved once bloomed as flowers 
On the same stem, amid the glory 

Of Eden's green and fragrant bowers; 
And that, though parted oft by fate, 

Yet when the glow of life is ended, 
Each soul again shall find its mate, 

And in one bloom again be blended." 



112 A SEARCH AFTER TRUTH. 

This "Eastern story" teaching, so adapted to the Oriental 
mind, of two mated souls blooming in paradisaic spheres as 
flowers upon one stem, but becoming disunited during jarring- 
incarnations, and then becoming re-united again in a love 
pure and Platonian, is certainly a beautiful theme for con- 
templation. If it be but a dream, it is a very enchanting one. 
Evidently, it was the poet's purpose in the above rhythmic 
lines to teach the soul's past pre-existence. 

Remember at this point that it is only the uneducated, 
lacking the finer elements of linguistic culture, that use the 
words pre-existence and reincarnation interchangeably. 
They are not synonyms. They are essentially different in 
origin and import. 

The pre-existence of the conscious, inmost spirit is consid- 
ered to be one of the clearest, strongest evidences of the 
soul's immortality. Few, with any philosophical insight, can 
be induced to look upon immortality with but one end to it. 
Few will contend that things particled and compounded, may 
not by a superior force, be non-compounded and disinte- 
grated; and few still will be bold enough to assert that the 
interrelational acts of mortal parentage literally, magically 
manufacture immortal souls! It is difficult to believe that 
there is not something in conscious, regal-souled man that is 
not the modern make-up of an all-too-often purposeless 
chance-act. These thoughts lead directly to the reasonable- 
ness of pre-existence. 

EMERSON, THE GREATEST OF AMERICANS. 

This poet-prophet whose centennial birthday was recently 
remcmbered and honored by all English-speaking nations, 
wrote: 

"The Eastern-born Nazarene belonged to the true race of 
prophets; he saw with open eye the mystery of the soul. 
Drawn by its severe harmony, ravished with its beauty, he 
lived with it and had his being there. Alone in all history, 
he estimated the greatness of man. One man was true to 
what is in you and me. He saw that God incarnates himself 
in man, and evermore goes forth anew to take possession 
of His world. Yet it is only in a 'jubilee of sublime emotion' 
that Jesus can say, T am divine. Through me God acts; 
through me speaks.' Churches are not built upon his prin- 
ciples, but upon his tropes." 

These are clear-cut, weighty words, bearing, indirectly at 
least, upon incarnation and reincarnation. 



A SEARCH AFTER TRUTH. 113 

WHAT IS REINCARNATION, OR RE-EMBODIMENT? 

Considering definitions, this is a knotty question. What 
cult is authorized to define it? Who is empowered to state 
its fundamental principles and purposes? Is it the Kal- 
muckian Lamas of Thibet; or the dreamy speculative Hin- 
dus of India? Is there not something weak and servile in 
drawing the philosophy of life, birth and death from the 
childhood period of the world? Science thinks little of any 
geological tree, and reason dignifiedly refuses to adorn her- 
self in the old moth-eaten parchments of the East — the land 
of myth and imagination. 

ALLAN KARDEC AND REINCARNATION. 

Coming down to modern times and inquiring what is rein- 
carnation, the theories of it are as numerous, as different 
and as far apart as the poles. Allan Kardec (whose real 
name was Leon H. D. Rivail), one of its first, if not the first 
advocate of it in the Western world, declared in his writings 
that "spirits have not the choice of the world they are to in- 
habit. . . Spirits animate men and women alternately. . . Many 
souls of this earth are reincarnated in Jupiter. . . There are 
still-born children who never had any spirit assigned them. — 
The spirit is not reincarnated in the new body till birth. 
The foetus has no soul.. .The body of an idiot may contain a 
spirit that animated a man of genius in a preceding incarna- 
tion. The idiot in the spirit state comprehends that its 
chains of imbecility were expiatory. . . The moral qualities 
that a man exhibits are those of the pre-existing spirit rein- 
carnated in him. . . Several spirits sometimes seek at the 
same time to incarnate in a body about to be born." All of 
this, and much more of a similar character, is, as must be 
admitted, but a series of assertions, devoid of even the show 
of scientific demonstration. 

It may not be amiss to here state that Allan Kardec was 
not only a clever mesmerist, but a great student of Oriental 
literature. His very being was saturated with the mysteries 
of the East. One can readily then see the influence that this 
aural-thought must have had upon his mediumistic sensi- 
tiveness. It was my privilege to attend in 1870, some of the 
seances he had organized in Paris. St. Louis was the al- 
leged spirit-president. It is reported that three hours after 
Allan Kardec's death, he dictated a message of affection 
through M. Deslions, one of his writing mediums (see my 



114 A SEARCH AFTER TRUTH. 

letter appearing in the Spiritual Universe, Chicago, Feb 17, 
1870). It is needless to state that reincarnation, as taught 
by Kardec, differed in some respects as widely from the Thi- 
betan and Brahmanic theories of reincarnation, as do the 
latter from the reincarnation promulgated by Theosophists 
and some American Spiritists. The dogma seems to lack a 
unitive basis. 

HUMAN BEINGS RE-EMBODIED IN ANIMALS. 

Many Brahmins, Buddhists and some Hindu Theosophists 
believe in the reincarnation or transmigration of human be- 
ings of the lower class into animals. This will not be de- 
nied. Conversing with them in Bombay, Madras, Madura 
and Tuticorin, and with Buddhists in Colombo and Kandy, 
Ceylon, they personally assured me with emphasis, that the 
baser and viler of human beings, would be re-embodied into 
tigers, and jackals, and even serpents. This was their 
karma. Here are some of my authorities : In the Colombo 
"Buddhist," of September, 2, 1892, occur these words: 

"The impressions of one's former life, or the 'accumulated 
experiences' are regarded as potent factors in the determina- 
tion of one's re-birth. For instance, if a man persistently 
desire to eat animal food like a tiger, and longs to have the 
appetite and strength of that animal, it is possible that he 
may be born as a tiger; but from that circumstance it 
should not be inferred that the nature of the tiger on this ac- 
count will be improved." 

A Hindu writer in the Lahore "Harbinger" says: 

'There are some people who have done through the human 
plane downward, — that is, they have reached the limit which 
is contiguous to the plane of the lower animals. As the in- 
fluence of their wicked actions tends to degrade them, they 
pass on to the sub-human plane, which is occupied by the 
lower animals. They will then appear in animal forms... 
Our scriptures mention accounts of sages who passes into 
the bodies of animals for a certain interval of time in expi- 
ation of some sin." 

Miss Catherine Christie, an excellent lady and Theosophist 
of Dunnedin, New Zealand, when lecturing upon reincarna- 
tion and karma, said in public and in words unmistakable, 
that "the lower classes of the old Atlanteans were reincar- 
nated into animals." and some Indian Theosophists affirm 
that these karmic phenomena are still in process. Think of 
this now-a-day phenomena of humanity reincarnated — re- 



A SEARCH AFTER TRUTH. 115 

born again into brutality — the spirit back into a low, fleshly 
animal vehicle! 

In the above cases and many similar ones in the Oriental 
scriptures metempsychosis, transmigration and reincarna- 
tion may be measurably considered synonyms, that is to say, 
men gravitating downwards to be reborn in and as animals. 
Is not this retrogression, rather than progress through evo- 
lution? 

WHEN,AND WHAT THE METHOD OF REINCARNATION? 

To the accomplishment of any rational result, there must 
be substantial material, purpose and a well-directed energy. 
Now then, how is reincarnation accomplished? What the 
process? Does the Ego, the inmost spirit disrobe itself of 
the "astral," rather the spiritual body, as a preliminary step? 
Self-purposed, does it dart like a ray of light to the waiting 
matrix? Does it come fleshward by choice, or is it physically 
forced through generation, from spirit freedom to flesh im- 
prisonment? 

The Thibetans, Hindu adepts, medieval occultists, French 
Spiritists and Theosophists all differ radically among them- 
selves in defining the hypotheses and the methods. As 
knowledge is said to be "the world's savior," it would be 
most interesting to know if the descending Ego, that is, the 
triad (Atma-Buddhi-Manas), enters the spermatazoon, or 
ovum, at the interrelational moment, or at the quickening, 
or at the birth, or at the seventh year. These have all been 
designated the times — the diverse seasons for the reincarna- 
tion planting. 

In her "Epitome of Theosophy," the eloquent Mrs. Besant 
informs us that these "incarnations are not single, but re- 
peated, each individuality becoming re-embodied during nu- 
merous existences in successive races, "..and she further 
assures us that "this slow process is going on through count- 
less incarnations." And all for what? Am I told "to get 
knowledge"? But is this the only world in which to get 
knowledge? Is it to "gain more experiences"? But who 
would not prefer some experiences in climbing the mount- 
ains of the moon, sailing on the canals of Mars, or travers- 
ing the starry spaces? Am I further told that people are re- 
incarnated to pay off some old karmic debts which they 
were not conscious of contracting? The scriptural prodigal 
son, symbol of humanity — justly suffering from hunger in a 
far-off land, voluntarily returned to his father, and what did 



116 A SEARCH AFTER TRUTH. 

the father do? Did he send him back, memoryless, after a 
little devachanic rest at home, for more karmic experiences 
in eating swine-refused husks? No, the father forgave him; 
hut now-a-day reincarnation knows nothing of the divine 
Fatherhood — nothing of forgiveness. In fact, the basic foun- 
dation of this karmic-incarnation is retaliation. 

REINCARNATION OPPOSED TO EVOLUTION. 

The grand theory of evolution is accepted alike by scien- 
tist, seer and sage. "Upward," exclaims the inspired poet, 
"all things tend." Look at the formation of this planet — 
first the flinty, igneous strata, then the mineral kingdom, 
then the vegetable, then the animal, then the human as the 
crowning earthly glory, then the flesh-disrobed, death-defy- 
ing spirit, conscious and proudly aspirational. Now then, if 
the vegetable does not reincarnate into the mineral, nor the 
animal back into the vegetable, nor the human back into the 
four-footed animal, why should the spirit reincarnate back 
into the fleshly chains of mortality? This would be down- 
right retrogression. It would be Ego-rotation from the flesh 
back into the flesh — the turning back of the individualized 
conscious spirit to the physical plane of being — a moral deg- 
radation! It would be comparable to forcing the university 
professor back to the old school-house to rectify some blun- 
ders made in the multiplication table. 

Conscious of this wondrous life, vibrant throughout this 
illimitable universe, I look up at the stars and feel that I am 
chained to matter — and must I ever and ever return to be 
re-chained? I chafe under the thought. True, I can talk 
through the air to New York, and direct letters by lightning 
under the sea to Melbourne, but how much more — infinitely 
more can I do when freed from this bondage of clayey earth- 
liness, permitting me to explore the immensities, weigh the 
mighty planets and exact from them their origins and their 
biographies! Be this my destiny instead of being linked to 
a cog on the revolving wheel of a heartless karmic, fleshly 
fate. 

NATURE REBELS AT REINCARNATION. 

The green apples of summer time do not contradict the 
ripened ones of autumn; but reincarnation, or re-embodi- 
ment, does directly, squarely contradict evolution. Does the 
yellowing corn seek a return to the husk? Does the win- 
nowed wheat strive to reclothe itself in its cast-off chaff? 



A SEARCH AFTER TRUTH. 117 

Does the winged butterfly hunt for and struggle to re-enter 
the chrysalis shell? Does the newly hatched bird making 
music in maple or elm, desire to be reincarnated into the old 
shell and storm-shattered nest? Do spirits, freed from 
fleshly aches and pains, desire to re-enter and re-wallow in 
human ions, cells and viscera? The asking answers the 
question — aye, more, it postulates the utter insufficiency of 
anything terrestrial to satisfy the onward, upward march of 
the soul, conscious not only of its consciousness, but of its 
individuality and imperishable identity. 

REINCARNATION AND THE INEQUALITIES OF LIFE. 

The "inequalities of life" has become a stereotyped stock- 
in-trade song with reincarnationists. Some have few oppor- 
tunities. Some are born with little, others with great ca- 
pacities. Some are born in poverty, others in palaces of the 
rich. Well — why not? These temporary inequalities, seen 
from the subjective and the eternal, in connection with the 
absolute whole, are sublime in their philosophical bearings. 
There is eternity for the play of progression. Inequalities, 
diversities and differentiations are among nature's divinest 
gifts. 

Suppose there were an equality of all forest trees — say 
weeping willows! Suppose the surface of the earth were 
one vast plane of equality! What would the sturdy farmer 
say? Suppose again that earth's millions born to-morrow — 
and all time thereafter, were born at the same hour of the 
day, under the same constellation, with the same disposi- 
tions, with the same capacities and with the same tastes — 
and that a taste for mechanics! This, in its broadest sense 
would be equality — the much-harped "equality of life." How 
would you like it? Would not every intelligent person say, 
"monotony, monotony"? Certainly! And equality is little 
more than another name for monotony, and monotony to a 
thinking, stirring reformer, "would be hell!" Inequality, 
every way considered, has its rich compensation. The 
chief difference between the prince and the peasant, is tem- 
poral, worldly, and physical environments. But the spirit- 
ual is the real, and the spiritually toiling farmer, or soil- 
handed mechanic, may be nobler at heart than the million- 
aire aristocrat. Grave-dust, and the disillusioned life just 
beyond, demonstrate this. 

Lincoln was a rail-splitter, Garfield a mule-driver, and 
General Grant a tanner-boy. Did they grumble about lacK 



118 A SEARCH AFTER TRUTH. 

of opportunity, early poverty, and the "inequalities of life"? 
If all men were born germinally temperate, well-balanced 
and moral, there would be no work for great-souled reform- 
ers. The optimistic thinker tires of this everlasting pessi- 
mistic brawl of the lazy and the go-easy shiftless about the 
"inequalities of life." When sounded to their depths, these 
inequalities show not a scintilla of reason for reincarnation. 
Inequalities exist now, and it is to be confidently hoped that 
they will in the next and all future stages of existence. Was 
it not Pope who wrote: 

"Go teach eternal wisdom how to rule, 
Then drop into thyself and be a fool." 

IS RE-BIRTH THE ONLY METHOD OF PROGRESSION? 

The prime reason offered for re-embodiment is based upon 
the materialistic theory that only in this fleshly body and 
narrow time-sphere can mortal man get experiences, prop- 
erly unfold and round out a really regal character. This is 
a proofless assertion — an irrational statement, and nothing 
more! The sage returning to nursery life through this re- 
incarnating gate of conception, would, in fact, be going back- 
wards, crab-like, minus memory, to be Y^-born and re- 
trained in a kind of childish kindergarten, somewhat com- 
parable to a man equipped in boy's boots! This earth, it 
should be remembered, is but a floating speck in the oceanic 
realm of the mighty immensities, with other worlds more 
advanced, possibly, than ours, and spheres more refined, and 
zones more etheric and vastly better adapted to the educat- 
ing, unfolding and spiritually rounding up of character, than 
this ever-changing fog-land region of floods fvnd cyclones, 
competitions, cruelties and shocking barbarities, we tempo- 
rarily now inhabit. Then why return? Why come back to 
be encased — re-encoffined in human flesh? Is it to finish up 
undone work? This I could better do — infinitely better do, 
it seems to me, as a freed spirit, by impressing, entrancing 
and inspiring sensitives from my higher plane of life, than by 
returning through uterine existence, a period of placenta 
imprisonment, with the later accompanying teeth-cutting 
aches and ills of childhood and temptations of youth up to- 
wards manhood. If not a uterine confinement for the Ego, 
then how, and when, and why? Demonstrations and reasons 
are demanded. Speculations do not count. They are out of 
court. 



A SEARCH AFTER TRUTH. 119 

REINCARNATION NO PART OF SPIRITUALISM OR 
ORIGINAL THEOSOPHY. 

It must be admitted by all up-to-date readers and journal- 
ists that reincarnation constituted no part of Modern Spirit- 
ualism, nor of modern Theosophy, founded in the residence 
of a prominent New York Spiritualist. This was an after- 
attached tag imported from the Orient. Of "Isis Unveiled," 
written after the foundation of this society, Col. Olcott wrote 
as follows: "H. P. Blavatsky says most positively, 'We will 
now present a few fragments of this mysterious doctrine of 
reincarnation — as distinct from transmigration — which we 
have from authority. Reincarnation, i. e., the appearance of 
the same individual, or rather of his astral monad, twice on 
the same planet, is not a rule in nature; it is an exception, 
like the teratological phenomenon of a two-headed infant.' 
The cause of it, when it does occur, she says, is, that the de- 
sign of nature to produce a perfect human being has been in- 
terfered with, and therefore she (Nature^ must make an- 
other attempt. Such exceptional interferences, H. P. B. ex- 
plains, are the cases of abortions, of infants dying before a 
certain age, and of congenital and incurable idiocy. If rea- 
son has been so far developed as to be come active and dis- 
criminative, there is no reincarnation on this earth." 

In commenting upon the above words of Madame Blavat- 
sky, Col. Olcott says in his "Theosophist," Vol. Ill, No. 1: 

"I believe that she wrote then (six years after the found- 
ing of the Theosophical Society) as she did later, exactly ac- 
cording to her lights, and that she was just as sincere in de- 
nying reincarnation in 1876-78, as she was in affirming it 
after 1882. Why she and I were permitted to put the mis- 
statement into 'Isis,' and, especially, why it was made to me 
by the Mahatma, I cannot explain, unless I was the victim of 
glamor in believing I talked with a Master on the evening in 
question. So let it pass." 

Appropos to the above, Alexander Fullerton, New York, 
secretary of the American Branch of Theosophists, wrote in 
the July "Theosophist," 1902, as follows: 

"H. P. Blavatsky must always remain the insoluble prob- 
lem for Theosophists. Her marvelous powers and her 
equally marvelous weaknesses, her inconsistencies, her in- 
compatibilities, the palpable facts which contradict the nec- 
essary facts — all make up a compound which can only be 
partially described or imperfectly grasped, and which cannot 



12 A SEARCH AFTER TRUTH. 

in the least be understood." On the contrary, her "incon- 
sistencies," her "marvelous weaknesses," her contradictions 
can be understood, when it is understood as a fact that she 
was a spirit medium (not a spiritual medium, but a spirit me- 
dium of the physical type, functioning on the earthly plane). 
We are further informed by Mr. Fullerton (see "Theoso- 
phist," July, 1902, Madras) that Mme. Blavatsky first ap- 
peared as a "white magician" — the educated class of Hindus 
say "black magician." So differ the East and the West. 

Mr. Fullerton, writing further in the "Theosophist," of a 
certain non-reconciliation, says: "Col. Olcott has demon- 
strated that she knew nothing of reincarnation during her 
years in America, and that neither of them ever heard of it 
until they learned it in India, and yet it is the vital doctrine 
of the Theosophic philosophy, which she must have studied 
when in India before, also during her pupilship in Thibet. 
She was an advanced practical occultist when she first 
landed in the States." 

The above statements constitute a trinity of remarkable 
confessions: 

1. Madame Blavatsky wrote both for and against the 
dogma of reincarnation. 

2. Neither Olcott nor Blavatsky ever heard of reincarna- 
tion till they learned it in India, that Siva-land of fancy and 
florid imagination. This being true, reincarnation should be 
branded, "borrowed from India!" 

3. Reincarnation is "the vital doctrine" of the Theosophic 
philosophy. Be this remembered. 

MY PERSONAL REINCARNATIONAL CAREERS. 

As gravely as graciously have I been told at different timea 
and in different countries by two or three spiritistic medi- 
ums, and several clairvoyant Theosophists, that several 
thousand years ago I was an Aryan adept, summering on 
Ganges' floral banks ; on a second incarnating "round" I was 
a sacerdotal priest officiating in one of the temples of Osiris 
in ancient Egypt; on my third re-embodiment, I was Habak- 
kuk, the old Hebrew prophet; on a fourth "round" I was 
Herodotus, the Grecian historian and traveler; on my fifth 
reincarnation I was Origen, the early Christian father; on 
my sixth incarnation, I was Peter the Hermit, priest-ves- 
tured, cross in one hand, sword in the other, storming 
through and arousing all Europe in fieriest eloquence to rush 
in maddened war-legions to the Holy Land and rescue the 



A SEARCH AFTER TRUTH. 121 

tomb of Jesus from the unclean hands of unholy "infidels/ 1 
these brown-skinned Islamic paynims. 

All this may be true; but I've not a scintilla of proof of it. 
Aye, more, I am rigidly skeptical about it. Think of it, — 
after all this prolonged series of incarnations, posing as 
Aryan adept, Egyptian priest, Hebrew prophet, Grecian his- 
torian, early church father, and Peter the Hermit, here I am 
plain, hard-working Peebles, plodding physician, writer and 
author! Where now is evolution? Where the progression? 
Surely, there's been none in my case. Where all those past 
Oriental experiences of mine? Where those bygone memo- 
ries? Where the cranial records of those achievements? 
and what the benefit of all those vanished lessons? This, if 
I understand anything about it, is a universe of uses. 

I have been informed that Socrates was reincarnated in 
Alfred the Great, David in Jesus, Elijah in John the Baptist, 
Mary Queen of Scots in the late Countess of Caithness, a 
Hyksos king in Col. Olcott, Solon, the Athenian legislator, 
in two different California boys (so claimed by fond moth- 
ers), all of which, while exciting and feeding a childish van- 
ity, is to scientists and illustrious thinkers, little more than 
snobbery -prattle, innocent of reason and void of a particle of 
substantial proof. 

CULTURED HINDU AUTHORITY UPON REINCARNA* 
TION. 

Consciousness, science, reason and a cultured judgment, 
rather than marvel, mystery, and Brahmanical fables of rein- 
carnating gods, must constitute the umpire concerning rein- 
carnation. Neither the inductive nor the deductive methods 
of reasoning sustain it. Often have I been told confessedly 
by its devotees, "We cannot prove it, but we can feel it." 
The feeling, the emotions are very unreliable guides. 

"But I can remember some occurrences in one of my past 
incarnations." 

"Are you certain of it? Is it not rather hallucination, 
dream imagination, or a morbid neurasthenia?" 

"But I see places, and scenery, and monuments, looking 
perfectly familiar to me; and yet I was never in that part of 
the country before." 

Quite ilkely; this is a common experience of sensitives. 
My own case is a telling example. Often in far-off countries 
I see mountains, rivers, temples, shrines, perfectly familiar 
to me. "Had you not been there before?" Never in the 



122 A SEARCH AFTER TRUTH. 

body. "How do you account for it?" Upon the rational 
principle that accompanying invisible intelligences who had 
lived in those lands, telepathically or psychically impressed 
the perspective upon my mind — impressed it so clearly, 
firmly that I seemed to have once lived there bodily. The 
philosophy of these pre-phenomena has been confirmed to me 
over and over again by the trance utterances of higher intel- 
ligences. 

Listen for a moment to the testimonies of enlightened 
Hindus: 

Lankal R. Bhose, a law-pleader and learned Hindu author, 
thus writes: "Reincarnation, the legitimate child of trans- 
migration (the latter is still the common belief in southern 
India), held so tenaciously and almost universally by old 
India, is on the declining plane. Psychology, as taught by 
both the British and the French, is rapidly displacing the be- 
lief by showing its irrationality and depressing influences 
upon the superstitions in relation to animal, serpent and in- 
sect life." 

That eminent Hindu scholar and author, Protab Chunder 
Mozoomdar, said in his great Lowell lecture; "Transmigra- 
tion notoriously existed as an indispensable article of faith 
among the sects of old Hinduism. In modern times, how- 
ever, it is called reincarnation, and held by the more super- 
stitious. Educated, free-thinking Hindus reject it as a fad- 
ing, unreasonable relic of the past." 

The Rev. Dr. Savage, of New York, the distinguished Uni- 
tarian and Spiritualist, writes: "Reincarnation seems to me 
a hopeless kind of doctrine any way you take it. It puzzles 
me beyond expression; in so much as all the Hindus, all the 
Buddhists are engaged with all their powers, all their philos- 
ophies, all their religions, to get rid of being reincarnated; 
while here we are picking it up as though it were a new find, 
and something very delightful Before we take this novelty 
up, would it not be worth while to find out why they are 
working so hard to get rid of it?" 

Among the general reasons for rejecting reincarnation by 
scholars and savants, are the following: 

1. It is not based upon one sound, solid, demonstrated 
fact. 

2. It denies, or sets at defiance, the great uplifing law of 
evolution. 

3. Its boasted "800,000,000 believers" are made up of 
Brahmins, Buddhists, Chinese, Thibetans — who, as a whole, 



A SEARCH AFTER TRUTH. 123 

are among the most ignorant, imaginative and superstitious 
people on earth. 

4. It degrades the spirit by bringing it rotatingly back 
into the paralyzing meshes of earthly matter, instead of em- 
phasizing its ascension from the human spirit to the spirit- 
ual, the angelic, the celestial, the arsaphic, and onward still 
from glory to glory. 

5. It annihilates, or effectually stupefies memory during 
long periods of Ego-rotation, which memory constitutes the 
corner-stone of individuality and self-cognition. 

6. It violates every analogy of nature, such as the upward 
march from mineral to vevegtable, from vegetable to animal, 
from birth to childhood, to manhood, to spirit untrammeled, 
and thus onward to celestial realms and spheres beatific and 
innumerable. 

7. It is unjust and retaliative enough to discipline, or 
painfully cause suffering to souls in this life, for wrongs done 
in previous incarnations, and of which they have now neither 
consciousness nor the least possible memory of committing. 

8. It stifles the "sweet reasonableness" of human nature 
by blasting its tenderest affections; for karma, or karmic law 
allied to reincarnation, knows nothing of home, of mercy, of 
forgiveness or sympathy. Its heartless voice to the sorrow- 
ing sufferer is, "You sinned in a past incarnation. Now take 
your stripes, baffetings and soul-crushing agonies, neither 
complaining, nor rightfully demanding relief therefrom. 
Take another repotting into human flesh. Try again in an- 
other human body, under another name, in the slough of mor- 
tality." 

9. For mathematical exactness, inductive reasonings and 
demonstrations, it substitutes Cagliostro occultism, specula- 
tions and wild hypotheses which are as undemonstrable and 
miraculously unreasonable, as they are unphilosophical. 

10. It has no fundamental premises, no philosophy based 
upon discovered and scientific admitted facts; but wobbling 
about between the speculations of the East and the West, 
mingling Hindu magic with medieval alchemy, it shadows 
the mind with the relentless, hopeless eclipse of matter 
through vast "rounds" of Ego-rotation. 

11. This Oriental reincarnation dogma having been the 
popular belief of India for thousands of years, has sunk the 
Hindu masses into an almost hopeless condition of soul-para- 
lyzing apathy. To this end Col. Olcott thus wrote: "The 
best friends of India, her most patriotic sons, have deplored 



124 A SEARCH AFTER TRUTH. 

to me the moral darkness and degradation of her people. 
Native judges. . . .have lowered their white heads in shame 
when they said that the vice of lying and the crime of per- 
jury prevailed to a fearful extent. And the worst part of it 
was that the moral sense was so far gone, that people con- 
fessed their falsehood without a blush, and without an idea 
thai they were to be pitied." What a comment upon the 
fruits of reincarnation ! And how sad the thought that there 
are dreamy, imaginative Englishmen and a few of our coun- 
trymen trying to cram this theory into the minds of think- 
ing, reasoning, wide-awake Americans! 

12. It is opposed to physical science, to mental science, to 
the spiritual philosophy, to the harmonial philosophy, and 
to the direct testimonies of those exalted intelligences whose 
radiance makes brilliant the hierarchies of the heaven of 
heavens. That certain, earth-bound souls, and unprogressed 
Hindu spirits teach this deplorable, depressing dogma, is ad- 
mitted. They will outgrow this delusion in time, for "up- 
ward all things tend." 

IS THERE A RESIDUUM OF TRUTH IN REINCARNA- 
TION? 

Most assuredly there is — and so there is in Parseeism,, 
Quakerism, and Mormonism. Joseph Smith was a clairvoy- 
ant. He had and exercised spiritual gifts. Yes, there is a 
germ of fact in reincarnation, because spirit is ever incarnat- 
ing itself into matter. 

1. Enlightened minds well know that the Gibraltar rock 
of Spiritualism is Spirit — all-pervading and all-energizing 
Spirit. Substance, invisible in its finer gradations, when 
chemically manipulated and precipitated, becomes matter, 
the subject of the sense-perceptions. And spirit interpene- 
trates, incarnates and perpetually reincarnates itself into 
matter. 

2. A conscious spirit disrobed of gross materiality, dwell- 
ing in some spiritual sphere afar of rich-blazoned splendors, 
re-embodies, or in a sense, reincarnates temporarily when it 
descends into the atmosphere of our earth and vestures itself 
in such visible atoms, ions, molecules and refined elements 
as it can manipulate for materialization, for the accomplish- 
ment of some great purpose, something as the university pro- 
fessor may descend from his collegiate chair, and donning 
the foot-ball suit, teach the necessity of exercise and the 
graces of muscular motion. 



A SEARCH AFTER TRUTH. 12 5 

3. The aural emanations extend from persons from one to 
five and even twenty-five feet. This is especially true of psy- 
chics. They are enveloped in an odyllic cloud. Now then, 
when a spirit approaches from some higher, brighter sphere 
into the radius of this human aura, attaching itself thereto 
and mingling therein, it in a sense, incarnates and reincar- 
nates to impress for some end, unworthy or praiseworthy, 
depending upon the degree of the spirit's unfoldment. 

4. Again, an illustrious spirit intelligence, seer or sage, 
afire with love and beneficence, looking upon this world of 
struggle, competition and crime, may earnestly desire to en- 
lighten and uplift humanity to a higher spiritual plane of 
truth and purity; accordingly in the sacred impregnating- 
planting of the pre-existing spirit, he projects a current, a 
thrill, a thought-ray of light from himself into the sensitive 
life-germ. This magnetic moulding ray purposely willed and 
psychically perpetuated by this heavenly benefactor, be he 
musician, mathematician, artist or poet, energizes, and 
measurably molds the foetus, the infant, the child — the 
heaven-impressed child — which is often pronounced "a great 
genius." Here is the golden key that unlocking, rationally 
explains reincarnation without puerility, speculation, Ori- 
ental fable, or dreamy, Devachanic romance. 

It is needless to say that I hold in high esteem my Aryan 
brothers of the Orient. Many Hindu reincarnationists are 
liberal,high-minded men. They are deductive reasoners. 
They are docile, trusting and aspirational, and those that 
know them best love them the most. One of these gentle- 
men, English-educated, wrote me recently from Calcutta, 
averring that "Spiritualism was old in India." My prompt 
and pertinent reply was that India, since the historic period, 
has not had nor enjoyed so much as a shadow of genuine, 
philosophical Spiritualism; but it has had in profusion crude 
spiritism, necromancy, obsession, occultism, Yogi-juggling 
and black magic, all of which are as distant from true, ra- 
tional Spiritualism as are the Mohammedan hells from the 
brilliant heavens of seers and savants. Hindu and French 
reincarnation, though the pronounced "vital doctrine" of 
Theosophy, has no necessary relation to Spiritualism. 
Neither has it any necessary relation to original modern The- 
osophy, as founded in New York. 

It is opposed to science as studied and elucidated by all 
German and great English-speaking scientists. 



126 A SEARCH AFTER TRUTH. 

It is opposed to the only legitimate inference derived from 
the accumulated facts of psychic phenomena. 

It is opposed to that philosophy which is the attainment of 
truth by way of reason. 

It is opposed to psychology, which is the analysis and clas- 
sification of the functions and faculties of the mind as re- 
vealed to observation and induction, and sanctioned by de- 
duction. 

It is opposed to that rigid logic, the inferences of which 
are based upon solid premises and the fixed principles of na- 
ture. 

It is opposed to those axiomatic principles which show than 
things existing with the same thing, co-exist with one an- 
other; and that whatever is true of a whole class, is true of 
whatever belongs to and is brought under the class, and the 
class, the series, the races of human beings, come under the 
class, the law — the law of evolution, which in its mighty, 
majestic sweep, lifts all conscious human souls through meth- 
ods inverse, diverse and often mysterious, upward and on- 
ward, through the eternities — one grand purpose, one law, 
one life, one brotherhood, and one destiny, and that soul-un- 
foldment, ever aspiring yet never reaching absolute perfec- 
tion and power. 

Finally, Hindu reincarnation (a modified transmigration), 
being injected into American thought, is only a hypothesis, 
a baseless dream, a hazy speculation that fades away before 
the ascending stars of science and philosophy, as do the 
moistening, quivering dews before June's golden sunshine. 



Use and Abuse of Psychic Powers. 

A Lecture Delivered Before a Chicago Audience by 
C. W. Lead beater, the Great Psychic, 
of London, England, 



TRAINED AND UNTRAINED MAN— PSYCHIC POWERS- 
USES AND ABUSES— MIND CURE— CLAIRVOYANCE- 
POWER OF THOUGHT— THOUGHT FORMS— SENSI- 
TIVENESS— SENSITIVENESS MISUSED. 

Strictly speaking psychic powers mean the powers of the 
soul because this word psychic is derived from the Greek 
psuche, the soul. But in ordinary language this term is used 
rather to imply what we in Theosophy should call the powers 
of the astral body, or even in many cases those 
pertaining to the etheric part of the physical body. To 
speak of persons as ''psychic" generally means nothing 
more than that they are sensitive — that they sometimes see 
or hear more than the majority of people around them are 
as yet able to see or hear. Though it is of course true that 
this sight is a power of the soul, it is equally true that all the 
powers which we display in physical life are also powers of 
the soul, for our bodies, whether astral or physical, are after 
all only vehicles. What is commonly termed "psychic 
power" is then only a very slight extension of ordinary fac- 
ulties; but the expression is also sometimes used to include 
other manifestations which are as yet somewhat abnormal 
among men, such as mesmeric power, or the power of mind 
cure. Since the will is undoubtedly a quality of the ego, and 
since that is the motive force both in mesmerism and in 
mind cure, I presume that we can hardly object to the appli- 
cation of this term psychic power in these cases. Very often 
telepathy and psychometry are considered to come under the 

127 



12 8 USE AND ABUSE OF PSYCHIC POWERS. 

same head, although these in reality merely indicate a some- 
what unusual sensitiveness to impressions from without. In 
reality all of these powers of the soul are inherent in every 
son of man, though they are developed as yet only in a few, 
and are working only very partially even with them, unless 
they have had the inestimable advantage of definite occult 
training. 

TRAINED AND UNTRAINED MAN. 

In my lectures upon Clairvoyance I have very often had to 
draw a decided distinction between the trained and the un- 
trained man. Until we come to examine the matter practi- 
cally we can have very little idea what an enormous differ- 
ence the definite training in the use of such powers really 
makes to the capacity of the man. Practically all those of 
whom we commonly think of as psychic in this occidental 
country are entirely untrained. They are simply persons 
who possess a little of this higher faculty, which has been 
born in them as a consequence of some efforts which they 
have made to attain it in past lives — possibly as vestal vir- 
gins in ancient temples, or possibly as practitioners of less 
desirable forms of magic in medieval times. In most cases 
in this life they have used such powers somewhat blindly, or 
perhaps have made no conscious effort to use them at all, 
but have rather been satisfied to accept whatever impres- 
sions came to them. In India, and in other Oriental coun- 
tries, these things have been scientifically studied for very 
many centuries, so that there any one who shows signs of 
such development is instructed either to repress its manifes- 
tations altogether, or else put himself under the definite 
training of those who thoroughly understand the subject. 
The Indian mind approaches these problems from a totally 
different point of view. To the Hindu more sensitiveness 
seems an undesirable quality lest it should degenerate into 
mediumship — a condition which he regards with the utmost 
horror. To him these powers of the soul do not seem in the 
slightest degree abnormal; he knows that they are inherent 
in every man, and so he is in no way surprised at their occa- 
sional manifestation. But he knows also that unless care- 
fully trained and kept in perfect control they are very liable 
to mislead their possessor in the early days of his experi- 
ences. 

The Indian student knows what he is doing in regard to 
these matters, for they have all thoroughly classified thou- 



USE AND ABUSE OF PSYCHIC POWERS. 12 9 

sands of years ago. There are many teachers in India who 
will take a man and train him quite definitely, just as here a 
man might be trained in athletics or in the practice of some 
science. You will readily realize therefore that in Eastern 
countries the whole thing is systematized in a way very dif- 
ferent from that which prevails among us. All of those 
whom here you call psychic and clairvoyant would be regard- 
ed in the East as not very promising pupils. Indeed I be- 
lieve that many of the Oriental teachers would rather not 
undertake the development of a man who has already some 
small amount of these psychic powers, because it is found 
that such a man has usually much to unlearn, and is far 
more difficult to manage and to train than one in whom as 
yet no such faculties have manifested themselves. In the 
East they have a thorough comprehension of all these things, 
and therefore fewer mistakes are likely to occur among 
them ; for with them a man is trained in the use of his facul- 
ties from the first, and the possibility of error and miscal- 
culation are clearly explained to him and therefore he is 
naturally far less likely to fall a victim to them. 

We know very well how in our Western countries clairvoy- 
ance has a bad reputation, by reason of the fact that there 
are many pretenders to its possession who are constantly un- 
successful and blundering in their efforts. There may be 
some of these who are simply and entirely impostors; but 
I imagine that the majority have really some very partial de- 
velopment of this faculty, although they have often entirely 
misunderstood even the little that they have. Certainly no 
man in the East would ever come before the public, or be 
known in any way as a clairvoyant, until he had been trained 
very far on the way, so that he had passed beyond all possi- 
bility of the ordinary gross errors which are so painfully 
common among so-called clairvoyants here. If you grasp 
this fact, you will at once see how great is the difference be- 
tween the trained and the untrained, and how very little re- 
liance is usually to be placed upon the latter. 

I know that most psychics among us feel themselves to be 
infallible, and consider that the messages and impressions 
which reach them come always from the very highest possi- 
ble quarters; but the truth is that a very little common sense 
and study of the subject would show them that in this they 
are mistaken. No doubt it is to a certain extent gratifying 
to one's subtle self-conceit to suppose that one has the ex- 



130 USE AND ABUSE OF PSYCHIC POWERS. 

elusive power of communication with some great archangel; 
but if one will but take the trouble to read the literature of 
the subject it will soon become apparent that many hun- 
dreds of other people have also had their private archangels, 
and have nevertheless been very frequently grossly mis- 
taken. Of course no trained man could possibly fall into 
such an error as this; but then as I have said the vast ma- 
jority of our psychics in Europe and America are simply en- 
tirely untrained. Some of them may receive a certain 
amount of guidance from dead people — "spirit guides," as 
they are often called — but it is very rarely of a definite and 
practical kind, and it usually tends much more towards me* 
diumship and general sensitiveness than towards the gain of 
definite control and self development. 

I doubt very much whether any large number of our occi- 
dental psychics would for a moment submit themselves to 
the kind of training which the wiser teachers of the East 
consider necessary. There a man has to try persistently, 
patiently, over and over again at the very simplest feats 
until he succeeds in producing his results neatly and per- 
fectly; he is expected to build up his knowledge of higher 
planes step by step from those with which he is already 
familiar, and he is not encouraged in lofty flights which take 
his feet away from the bed-rock of ascertained fact. Our 
Western psychics would probably consider themselves much 
injured if they were made to work laboriously at self-control 
in the way it is always exacted as a matter of course in all 
Oriental schools of development of these psychic powers. 

I suppose that many people would include among psychic 
powers Astrology, Palmistry and Phrenology. I think, how- 
ever, that we are hardly justified in describing these as psy- 
chic, because in all of them the theory is that the results are 
obtained by deduction from matters of fact and of observa- 
tion. The Astrologer ascertains the position of the stars at 
any given moment, and from that he casts his horoscope or 
sets up his figure, and after that it is supposed to be a mere 
matter of calculation to discover what influences are at 
work. In the same way the Palmist simply observes the 
lines of the hand and then gives his delineation according to 
the accepted rules of his science; and the same is done by 
the Phrenologist from his examination of the varied configu- 
ration of the skull. Of course I know that in all these sci- 
ences the real proficiency lies in the capacity to balance the 
contradictory indications and to judge accurately between 



USE AND ABUSE OF PSYCHIC POWERS. 131 

them; and I am sure that many practitioners of these arts 
are aided in such decision by impressions which come very 
much nearer to psychic faculty. To these last perhaps we 
might permit the name of psychic power, but hardly to the 
sciences themselves; so that I think we may put them on one 
side for the purposes of our lecture. It sometimes happens 
that one who practices some of these arts is in the habit of 
receiving impressions and communications from some astral 
entity — impressions which very greatly assist him in judging 
accurately from the facts put before him. In that case od- 
viously such success as he may attain is not in consequence 
of his own psychic powers, but of the additional discernment 
which ordinary astral faculty gives to his departed helper. 

In the same way it does not seem to me that mediumship, 
should be recognized among psychic powers, or indeed con- 
sidered properly a power at all. The man who is a medium 
is not exercising power, but is on the contrary abdicating his 
rightful possession of control over his own organs or prin- 
ciples. It is essential for a medium that he should be one 
whose principles are readily separable. If he is a trance or 
a writing medium, that means that any astral entity may 
readily take possession of his physical body and utilize either 
the hand or the vocal organs, so that he is simply one who 
can be very readily dispossessed by a dead man. If, on the 
other hand, he is a materializing medium, whether the mate- 
rializations are perfect and visible forms, or merely invisible 
hands which touch the sitters at the seance, or play musical 
instruments or carry small objects about, then the quality 
which he possesses is simply that etheric or even physical 
matter can very readily be withdrawn from his body and 
used for the various operations of the seance. In any or all 
of these cases it will be seen that the medium's part is to be 
passive and not active, and that he may very readily be 
seized upon and obsessed. So that it is very evident that he 
cannot be described as possessing or using a power at all, 
but simply as able to assume a condition in which he can 
very readily yield himself to the power of others. 

PSYCHIC POWERS. 

It would seem then that we may reserve the title of 
"psychic" powers for the definite use of will or of the astral 
or etheric senses — that is to say that we may include genu- 
ine and controlled clairvoyance, mind-cure, mesmerism, tel- 
epathy and psychometry. A great deal of unconscious psy- 



132 USE AND ABUSE OF PSYCHIC POWERS. 

chic power is also being constantly exercised, and of that I 
shall speak later; but we will take the conscious exercise of 
powers first. The conscious exercise of these powers is only 
for the few among us at present. It is by no means uncom- 
mon to find men who have considerable mesmeric capability; 
and a very fair number of persons possess a good deal of 
curative power along various lines ; but still as compared to 
the total population these are only a very few. The uncon- 
scious powers are possessed by all of us, and all of us are 
using them to a greater or less extent. 

To those then who possess and employ these conscious 
psychic powers I would say that all of them may be used and 
all of them may be abused, so that it is very necessary that 
great care should be exercised with regard to them. There 
is a very good general rule which is universally applicable 
with regard to all such matters, and that is the rule of per- 
fect unselfishness. If those who possess such powers are 
using them in any way for personal gain, whether it be of 
money or of influence, then that is distinctly an abuse. 
These are truly powers of the soul; they are connected with 
the advancement of man and with his higher development, 
and it is for that higher development only that they should 
be employed. That is a very important point for the person 
possessing these powers to bear in mind; it is the only abso- 
lutely safe rule that can be made for their use. 

These are in all cases glimpses of the future of the human 
race. If these higher powers which will one day come to 
everyone of us are to be used by each man for himself, then 
that future will be a very fearful one and a very dark one. 
If, on the other hand, as these powers develop men learn to 
use them for the uplifting and the helping of the race, then 
that future will be a bright and a grand one. Our record 
tells us that in the remote past there was a mighty race 
which possessed those powers to the full; but that race, as a 
whole used them wrongly, and in consequence that race dis- 
appeared. We of the fifth root race must also in our turn 
pass through the same trial, we must inherit the same pow- 
ers. Their occasional appearance among us now is an earn- 
est of the time when they will presently become universal, 
when they will be widely understood and widely accepted. 

The great question is whether having followed our prede« 
cessors so far, we shall follow them to the end, whether 
when we have developed these powers as they did, we also 
shall abuse them as they did; for if we do that, then it is cer» 



USE AND ABUSE OF PSYCHIC POWERS. 133 

tain that we shall also follow them in their destruction. Bui) 
if, as may be hoped, we shall do somewhat better than they, 
if there shall be a larger proportion who will use these pow- 
ers for the good of mankind as a whole, then it may be that 
the doom can be averted, and that the common sense and 
public feeling of the majority will condemn and curb their 
employment for selfish purposes But if ihat is to be, if we 
are to have this larger proportion of those who understand 
and who use their powers intelligently, it is certain that we 
must begin now; now that these things are as yet only in 
seed among us we must begin by using them unselfishly, and 
we must put away altogether the idea of exploiting them for 
the sake of the lower self. There is already very far too 
great a tendency in this direction; the grasping avarice of 
the ignorant leads them to employ every additional advan- 
tage which they think they can gain, in order that they may 
make a little more money, that they may obtain a little more 
advancement or a little more fame for the wretched personal 
self. The dawn of these higher faculties must never be cor- 
rupted by such thoughts or such feelings as these. 

We must remember that these higher powers involve 
higher responsibility, that the man who possesses them is al- 
ready in a different position, because he is already coming 
within reach of higher possibilities in many directions. We 
understand this very readily in other and more purely physi- 
cal matters, and none of us would think of regarding the re- 
sponsibility of the savage when he commits a murder or a 
robbery as in any way equal to our own if we should fall into 
the same crime. That is simply because we have a greater 
knowledge than he, and so every one instinctively realizes 
that more is to be expected from us. Obviously exactly the 
same thing is true with regard to the question of this addi 
tional knowledge — this knowledge that brings with it so 
much more of power; for added power means added oppor. 
tunity and therefore added responsibility. 

USES AND ABUSES. 

In previous lectures I have already explained the Theo- 
sophical view with regard to mesmerism and mind cure, so 
that I need not now repeat myself with regard to these sub- 
jects. It is very easy to see how the former might be mis- 
used — how it might be employed with great facility to domi. 
nate the mind of a person and so to influence him unduly to 
favor the operator. One hears sometimes of such cases in 



134 USB AND ABUSE OF PSYCHIC POWERS. 

which a man desiring to obtain a position, or another one de- 
siring to obtain money, will exercise undue mesmeric infiu« 
ence and so get himself appointed to some place which he is 
obviously unfitted to fill, or perhaps succeed in having money 
given to him or left to him as a legacy when it should ob- 
viously by ordinary canons of justice have passed into quite 
other hands. It is quite common to see advertisements in 
the papers of those who profess to teach mesmeric influences 
avowedly with the intention that it shall be used in ordinary 
business, in order that the person who uses it may in this 
way get the better of the unfortunate man who came into 
contact with him in the way of trade. It is at once obvious 
that all these are very serious abuses; and I think that we 
must certainly class with them that use of mesmeric power 
which is so frequently exhibited in public — that which makes 
the subject ridiculous in some one or other of many ways. 
On the other hand there is no doubt that mesmerism may be 
very usefully and profitably employed for curative purposes. 
As I explained in my lecture on that subject it is usually 
possible to withdraw from a patient such pains as those of 
headache or toothache by means of a few passes without put- 
ting him into a trance condition at all. Indeed I imagine 
that a very large number of the ills to which flesh is heir 
could be cured in this way without the use of the trance. 
This latter should be used very sparingly, because it in- 
volves domination of one man's will by another. Perhaps 
almost the only case in which it is undoubtedly justifiable is 
that of a surgical operation. We shall find many accounts 
of its successful employment in such cases in the works of 
Dr. Esdaile of Calcutta, and Dr. Elliotson of London. 

MIND CURE. 

One may see equally readily how easy it would be to mis. 
use the power of mind cure. It is often employed simply aa 
a means of making money; and it seems to me that wher- 
ever that is done there is a terrible danger of impurity in the 
motive and unscrupulousness in the practice. I know that 
it will be said that those who devote the whole of their 
time and strength to the curing of others must themselves 
obtain their livelihood in some way, and that in this respect 
mind cure stands on the same level as ordinary medicine. 
I do not feel myself able to agree with this latter contention. 
In the case of the ordinary doctor we all know that he has 
passed through an expensive training in order to fit himself 



USE AND ABUSE OF PSYCHIC POWERS. 13 5 

to deal with the especial needs of the human body; and we 
all realize what it is that we are buying from him — the ser- 
vices which his skill and experience enable him to place at 
our disposal. But the mind-curist is often entirely ignorant, 
and has undergone no preliminary training whatever; and in 
any case he is using a power which cannot be measured upon 
the physical plane, because it belongs in reality to some- 
thing higher and less material. If such a practitioner has 
no means of his own, and is devoting the whole of his time to 
the work of curing diseases, there can be no objection to his 
accepting any gift that a grateful patient may wish to make 
to him in recognition of the help which he has given; but 
it certainly seems to me that to fix a definite charge for serv- 
ices of this nature is eminently undesirable and contrary to 
the whole spirit of occult teaching. This is a matter whicb 
every person must decide with his own conscience; but 
it is assuredly a most dangerous thing to introduce any ele- 
ment of personal gain into the utilization of powers which be* 
long to these higher levels. It is certainly better to avoid in 
this case the very appearance of evil. 

CLAIRVOYANCE. 

All this is true also of clairvoyance. Most undoubtedly 
any faculty of that nature which a person possesses may be 
used for good in a great many ways. For one who possesses 
this faculty higher worlds lie partially open, at any rate 
sometimes, and therefore this power may be used to learn. 
For this purpose it is necessary that the clairvoyant should 
make a very careful study of the literature of the subject, in 
order that he may see what others possessing this faculty 
have previously learnt, that he may be guided by their expe- 
rience and may avoid the pitfalls into which some of them 
have fallen. Naturally a clairvoyant who does not study the 
subject, who makes no effort to verify his visions and to com- 
pare them with the experiences of others, is liable to be very 
seriously deceived, and by his wild predictions and descrip- 
tions to bring the whole subject into discredit with those 
who do not understand it. But for one who uses this power 
with common sense and without self-conceit, in a scientific 
spirit of investigation rather than with the hope of obtaining 
personal gain from it, it may be a source not only of very 
great pleasure but also of great advancement. Not only may 
he obtain knowledge for himself — knowledge which he can 
also pass on to his fellow man, but by its means he may also 



136 USE AND ABUSE OF PSYCHIC POWBRb. 

learn to see when and how people need help, and to distin- 
guish the way in which it can most successfully be given. 
By its means he can often see where a kind word is especi- 
ally needed, where a loving, comforting, strengthening 
thought can be sent with the certainty of immediate result. 

The clairvoyant has ac least a little more power for good 
than his fellows if he will only watch for opportunities for 
using it, if only he will think always of helping others rather 
than of gaining anything for himself. Beautiful possibilities 
open up before us when we think of the power that will be in 
the hands of all in the not far distant future; the man who 
is to some extent clairvoyant now is beginning already to reap 
a little of the harvest of power for good which will come to 
us all as the race advances. So that the clairvoyant who is 
thoroughly unselfish and whose additional powers are care- 
fully balanced by strong and robust common sense may do a 
great deal of good in the world and may gain spiritual ad- 
vancement for himself in the very act of helping his fellow 
creatures. 

It is not difficult to see that this is a power that may be 
terribly misused. The additional information about others 
which it puts in the hands of its possessor may be employed, 
and unfortunately is employed sometimes, for personal gain, 
for the gratification of curiosity and even for the levying of 
blackmail. You see from this how essentially necessary it 
is that the clairvoyant should possess the characteristics of 
a gentleman, and where he belongs to the class which in The- 
osophy we call the first-class pitri this is of course the case. 
But unfortunately clairvoyance may be acquired by less de- 
veloped souls who do not possess the instincts of the man of 
delicate feeling, as you may very readily see by some of the 
disgraceful advertisements which so frequently appear in 
our papers. There you will see persons quite shamelessly 
announcing that they are prepared to put clairvoyant power 
(such as it is) at your disposal in order to help you to obtain 
an unfair advantage over your fellows in some speculation — 
that they will help you to rob other men under the pretext of 
gambling or of betting on horse racing. In this way they are 
pandering to the lowest passions of man, they are descend* 
ing from what should be a higher and purer realm into the 
foulest mud of the most degraded physical life. Nor are 
these the only offenders, for you will often see announce- 
ments from those who profess to teach clairvoyance or oc- 
cult science of some sort in return for so many pounds or so 



USE AND ABUSE OF PSYCHIC POWERS. 13 7 

many dollars. These unscrupulous practitioners are able to 
live and to nourish simply because the public is as yet en- 
tirely ignorant of the true conditions of all such teaching 
You may take it as an absolutely certain rule that no true oc- 
cultist has ever yet advertised himself, and that no true oc- 
cultist has ever yet taken money for occult teaching or infor- 
mation. The moment that a man advertises — the moment 
that he takes money for any service which professes to be of 
an occult nature — that moment he brands himself as having 
no true occultism to give. True teaching along these lines 
is to be obtained only from recognized schools of occultism 
existing under the guardianship of the great Brotherhood; 
and every pupil of these is absolutely forbidden to take 
money for the use of any psychic power. So that all these 
people condemn themselves, and bear this condemnation on 
the very face of their announcements; and if they flourish 
and grow fat upon the property of those whom they deceive, 
the sufferers have only themselves to thank for the results 
of their own foolish credulity. Once more I repeat that there 
is one, and only one, absolutely safe rule with regard to the 
use of all these higher faculties, and that is that they shall 
never under any conditions be employed for any selfish or 
personal object. 

POWER OF THOUGHT. 

Let us turn now from those powers which belong only to 
the few to those others which all of us possess and are using, 
even though we may be entirely unconscious of them. The 
first and the greatest of these is the power of our thought. 
Many a man has heard vaguely that thoughts are things, and 
yet the statement has not conveyed to him any very real or 
definite meaning. When he is fortunate enough to have de- 
veloped clairvoyance to the level of the mental plane he will 
be able very fully to bear testimony to the enormous import- 
ance of the truth which is expressed in that statement. If, 
utilizing the senses of the mental body, he looks out through 
them at the mental bodies of his fellows, he will see how 
thought manifests itself at that level and what results it pro- 
duces. It is in the mental body or mind of man that thought 
first manifests itself; and it shows itself to clairvoyant vis- 
ion as a vibration arising in the matter of that body. From 
the plates which I have published in "Man Visible and Invis- 
ible" it may be seen what is the appearance of this mentai 
body to the man who is able to see it — or rather what is indi- 



138 USE AND ABUSE OF PSYCHIC POWERS. 

cated there is an attempt to present in section and on the 
physical plane something of the higher and far grander and 
wider impression which is really made on the sense at that 
higher level by the appearance of that body. 

If a man thinks while the clairvoyant is watching him, the 
latter will see that a vibration is set up in the mental body 
and that this vibration produces two distinct results. First 
of all, like all other vibrations, it tends to communicate itself 
to any surrounding matter which is capable of receiving it; 
and thus, since the surrounding atmosphere is filled with 
mental matter, which is very readily set in motion in re- 
sponse to any such impulse, the first effect produced is that 
of a sort of ripple which spreads out through surrounding 
space, exactly as when a stone is thrown into a pond ripples 
will be seen to radiate from that centre along the surface of 
the water. In this case the radiation is not in one plane only 
but in all directions, like the radiation from the sun or from 
a lamp. It must be remembered that man exists in a great 
sea of mental matter, just precisely as we here on the physi- 
cal plane are living in the midst of the atmosphere, al» 
though we so rarely think of it. This thought-vibation, there- 
fore, radiates out in all directions, becoming less powerful in 
proportion to the distance from its source. Again like all 
other vibrations, this one tends to reproduce itself wherever 
opportunity is offered to it; and as each variety of thought is 
represented by its own rate of vibration, that fact means that 
whenever this wave strikes upon another mental body it will 
tend to provoke in it vibrations precisely similar to those 
which gave it birth in the first place. That is to say from 
the point of view of that other man whose mental body is? 
touched by the wave, it tends to produce in his mind a 
thought identical with that which had previously arisen in 
the mind of the thinker. The distance to which such a 
thought-wave would penetrate, the strength and persistence 
with which it would impinge upon the mental bodies of oth- 
ers, depends upon the strength and clearness of the original 
thought. 

The voice of a speaker sets in motion waves of sound in 
the air which radiate from him in all directions, and convey 
his message to all those who are, as we say, within hearing; 
and the distance to which his voice can penetrate depends 
upon its strength and the clearness of his enunciation. In 
exactly the same way the strong thought will carry very 



USE AND ABUSE OF PSYCHIC POWERS. 139 

much further than the weak and undecided one; but clear- 
ness and definiteness are of even greater importance than 
strength. But just as the speaker's voice may fail upon 
heedless ears where men are already engaged in business or 
in pleasure, so may a strong wave of thought sweep past 
without affecting the mind of a man if he is already deeply 
engrossed in some other line of thought. Very large num- 
bers of men, however, do not think very definitely or strongly 
except when in the immediate prosecution of some business 
which demands their whole attention. Consequently there 
are always very many minds within our reach which are 
liable to be considerably affected by the thoughts which im- 
pinge upon them; and we therefore are very distinctly re- 
sponsible for the -thoughts which we send out and for the ef' 
fects which they produce upon others. This is clearly a psy- 
chic power which we all possess, which we are all constantly 
exercising; and yet how few Of us ever think of it or the se- 
rious responsibility which it involves. 

Inevitably and without any effort of ours every thought 
which we allow to rest within our minds must be influencing 
the minds of others about us. Consider how frightful would 
be the responsibility if this thought were an impure or an 
evil one, for we should then be spreading moral contagion 
among our fellow-men. Remember that hundreds and thou- 
sands of people possess within them latent germs of evil — 
germs which may never blossom and bear fruit unless some 
force from without plays upon them and starts them into ac- 
tivity. If you should yield yourself to an impure or unholy 
thought, the vibration which you thus produce may be the 
very factor which awakens a germ into activity and causes 
it to begin to grow. Later it may blossom out into thoughts 
and words and deeds of evil, and these in their turn may in- 
juriously affect thousands of other men even in the far dis- 
tant future. We see then how awful is the responsibility of 
a single impure or evil thought. Very much harm is done in 
this way, and done quite unconsciously ; yet there is no doubt 
whatever that a heavy responsibility lies upon the man who 
knows that he ought to have purified his mind, but has neg- 
lected to do so. If it should ever happen to us, then, to have 
an impure or evil thought arising within us, let us hasten at 
once to send out a strong and vivid thought of purity and 
goodness to follow hard upon the other vibration and so far 
as may be, undo any evil which it may have done. 

Most happily all this is also true of good thought as well 



140 USE AND ABUSE OF PSYCHIC POWERS. 

as of evil; and the man who realizes this may set himself to 
work to be a veritable sun, constantly radiating upon all his 
neighbors thoughts of love and calm and peace. This is a 
very grand psychic power, and yet it is one that is within the 
reach of every human being — of the poorest as well as the 
wealthiest, of the little child as well as of the great sage. 
How clearly this consideration shows us the duty of control- 
ling our thought and of keeping it always at the highest level 
which is possible for us! 

That, however, is only one of the results of thought. 
Our clairvoyant watching the genesis of this thought would 
see that it not only sets up this radiating and divergent vi- 
bration, but that it also makes a definite form. All students 
of Theosophy are acquainted with the idea of the elemental 
essence that strange half-intelligent life which surrounds us 
in all directions ; and they know how very readily it responds 
to the influence of the human thought, and how every im- 
pulse sent out from the mind-body of man immediately 
clothes itself in a temporary vehicle of this essence. Thus it 
becomes for the time being a kind of living creature, the, 
thought-force being the soul and the elemental essence the 
body. There may be infinite variety in the color and shape 
of such thought-forms, or artificial elementals, as they are 
sometimes called. Each thought draws round it the matter 
which is appropriate for its expression and sets that matter 
into vibration in harmony with its own; thus the character of 
the thought decides its color, and the study of its variations 
and combinations is an exceedingly interesting one. A list 
of these colors with their signification is given in the book 
which I have just mentioned, "Man Visible and Invisible," 
and a number of colored drawings of various types of 
thought forms will be found accompanying Mrs. Besant's ar- 
ticle on the subject in Lucifer for September, 1896. In very 
many cases these thoughts are merely revolving clouds of 
the color appropriate to the special idea which gave them 
birth; but in the case of a really definite form, a clear cut 
and often very beautiful shape will be assumed. If the 
thought be purely intellectual and impersonal — for example 
if the thinker is attempting to solve a problem in algebra or 
geometry — then his thought-forms and waves of vibration 
will be confined to the mental plane. If, however, his 
thought is of a spiritual nature, or is tinged with love and 
aspiration or deep unselfish feeling, then it will rise upwards 



USE AND ABUSE OF PSYCHIC POWERS. 141 

from the mental plane and will borrow much of the splendor 
and glory of the Buddhic levels above. In such a case its in- 
fluence is exceedingly powerful, and every such thought is a 
mighty force for good which cannot but produce decided ef- 
fect upon all other mental bodies within reach, if they con- 
tain any quality at. all capable of response. If, on the other 
hand, the thought has in it something of self or of personal 
desire, at once its vibrations turn downward, and it draws 
around itself a body of astral matter in addition to its cloth- 
ing of mental matter. Thus then is a thought form capabla 
of acting upon not only the minds but the astral bodies of 
other men — that is to say, capable not only of arousing 
thoughts within them but also of stirring up their feelings. 
Here once more we see the terrible responsibility of sending 
forth a selfish thought or one charged with low and evil mag- 
netism. If any man about us has a weak spot within his na* 
ture — and who has not? — then this selfish thought of ours 
may find that weak spot and develop the germ into poisonous 
fruit and flower. Once more, purely good and loving 
thoughts and feelings will project their forms also, and will 
act upon other men just as strongly in their way as did the 
evil in the contrary direction; so that this opens before us a 
spnere of usefulness, when once our thoughts and feelings 
are thoroughly under the control of the higher self. 

THOUGHT FORMS. 

It may be useful for us to think a little more closely of thia 
thought-form, and to note its further adventures. Often a 
man's thought is definitely directed towards some one else — 
that is to say, he sends forth from himself a thought of affec- 
tion, of gratitude, or unfortunately it may sometimes be oJp 
envy cr jealousy or of hatred towards some one else. Such 
a thought will produce its radiations precisely as would any 
other; but the thought form which it generates is imbued 
with the definite intention, as it were, and as soon as it 
breaks away from the mental and astral bodies of the thinker 
it goes straight towards the person upon whom it is directed, 
and fastens itself upon him. It may be compared not inaptly 
to a Leyden jar, with its charge of electricity. If the man 
towards whom it is directed is at the moment in a passive 
condition, or if he has within him active vibrations of a 
character harmonious with its own, it will at once discharge 
itself upon him. Its effect will naturally be to provoke a 
vibration similar to its own if none such already exists, or 



142 USE AND ABUSE OF PSYCHIC POWERS. 

to intensify it if it is already to be found there. If the man's 
mind is so strongly occupied along some other lines that it 
is impossible for the vibration to find an entrance, thq 
thought form hovers about him waiting for an opportunity to 
discharge itself. \ 

Unfortunately, however, at our present stage of evolution 
the majority of the thoughts of men are probably self-cen- 
tered, even when not actively selfish. They are often very 
heavily tinged by desire, and in such cases they not only de- 
scend into and clothe themselves with astral matter, but 
they also tend to react upon the man who set them in mo- 
tion. Many a man may be seen surrounded by a shell of 
thought-forms, all of them hovering closely about him and 
constantly reacting upon him. The tendency in such a case 
is naturally to reproduce themselves — that is to say, to stir 
up in him a repetition of the thoughts to which he has 
previously yielded himself. Many a man feels this pressure 
upon him from without — this constant suggestion of certain 
thoughts; and if the thoughts are evil he frequently thinks 
of them as tempting demons goading him into sin Yet they 
are none the less entirely his own creation, and thus, as ever, 
man is his own tempter. 

Note on the other hand the happiness which this knowl- 
edge brings to us and the enormous power which it places in 
our hands. See how we can utilize this when we know (and 
who does not?) of some one who is in sorrow or in suffering. 
We may not be able to do anything for the man on the phys- 
ical plane; there are often many reasons which prevent the 
giving of physical help, no matter how much we may desire 
to do our best. Circumstances often arise in which our 
physical presence might not be helpful to the man whom wa 
wish to aid; his physical brain may be closed to our suggest 
tions by prejudice or by religious bigotry. But his astral and 
mental bodies are much more sensitive, much more easily 
impressible; and it is always open to us to approach these by 
waves of helpful thought or of affectionate and soothing feel- 
ing. Remember that it is absolutely certain that the results 
must accrue; there is no possibility of failure in such an ef- 
fort or endeavor to help, even though no obvious conse- 
quence may follow on the physical plane. The law of the 
conservation of energy holds good just as certainly at this 
level as it does in our terrestrial mechanics, and the energy 
which you pour forth must reach its goal and must produce 
its effect. 



USE AND ABUSE OF PSYCHIC POWERS. 143 

There can be no question that the image which you wish to 
put before your friend for his comfort or his help will reach 
him; whether it will present itself clearly to his mind when 
it arrives depends upon first of all upon the definiteness of 
outline which you have been able to give to it, and secondly 
upon his mental condition at the time. He may be so fully 
occupied with thoughts of his own trials and sufferings that 
there is little room for any new idea to insinuate itself; but 
in that case your thought simply bides its time, and when at 
last his attention is diverted, or exhaustion forces him to sus- 
pend the activity of his own train of thought, assuredly youra 
will slip in and will do its errand of mercy. Exactly the 
same thing is true at its different level of the strong feeling 
of affection and friendliness which you may send out towards 
a person thus suffering; it may be that at the moment he is 
too entirely occupied with his own feelings, or perhaps too 
much excited to receive and accept any suggestion from 
without, but presently a time comes when the faithful 
thought-form can penetrate and discharge itself, and then as 
suredly your sympathy will produce its due result. There 
are many cases where the best will in the world can do noth- 
ing on the physical plane; but there is no conceivable case in 
which either on the mental or the astral plane some relief 
cannot be given by steady concentrated loving thought. 

The phenomena of mental cure show how powerful thought 
may be even on the physical plane, and since it acts so much 
more easily on the astral and the mental we may realize very 
vividly how tremendous a power is ours if we will but exer- 
cise it. Remember always to think of a person as you wish 
him to be; the image which you thus make of him will natu- 
rally act powerfully upon him and tend to draw him gradu- 
ally into harmony with itself. Fix your thought upon the 
good qualities of your friends, because in thinking of any 
quality you tend to strengthen its vibrations and therefore 
to intensify it. It can never be right to endeavor to domi- 
nate the thought and the will of another even though it may 
be for what seems a good end; but it is always right to hold 
up before a man a high ideal of himself and to wish very 
strongly that he may presently be enabled to attain it. In 
this way your steady train of thought will always act upon 
those you love; and remember that at the same time it is act- 
ing upon yourself also, and you can utilize it to train thought 
power within yourself, so that it will become ever stronger 
and more definite. 



144 USE AND ABUSE OF PSYCHIC POWERS. 

If you know of certain defects or vices in a man's charac* 
ter, then send to him strong thoughts of the contrary vir- 
tues, so that these may by degrees be built into his character, 
Never under any circumstances dwell upon that which is evil 
in him, for in that case also your thought would tend to in* 
tensify that evil. That is the horrible wickedness of gossip 
and of scandal, for there we have a number of people fixing 
their thought upon the evil qualities of another, calling to 
that evil the attention of others who might perhaps not have 
observed it; and in this way, if the evil already exists, their 
folly distinctly acts to increase it, and if as is often the case, 
it does not exist, they are doing their best to produce it. As- 
suredly when we reach a more enlightened state of society 
people will learn to focus their connected thought for good 
upon others instead of for evil ; they will endeavor to realize 
very strongly the opposite virtue, and then send out waves 
of thought towards the man who needs their help; they will 
think of his good points and endeavor by concentrating at- 
tention upon them to strengthen him and help him through 
them; their criticism will be of that happy kind which grasps 
at a pearl as eagerly as our modern criticism pounces upon 
an imaginary flaw. 

SENSITIVENESS. 

There is another psychic quality which all of us possess in 
some degree, and that is the quality of sensitiveness to im- 
pressions. You know that we all receive these impressions 
at various times. As yet they are only imperfect and by no 
means always reliable, but nevertheless they may be noted 
and watched carefully, and used as training towards the de- 
velopment of a more perfect faculty. Many a time they may 
be useful in telling us where help is needed, where a loving 
thought or word is required. When we see a person we may 
sometimes feel radiating from him the influence of deep de- 
pression. If you remember the illustration in that recent 
book of mine of the man who was under the influence of de- 
pression you will recollect how entirely he seemed shut in by 
it, almost as effectively as the miser was shut in by his 
prison-house of self-centered thought. If you recollect that 
most impressive picture you will at once see what it is that 
your thought can do for this man. It can strengthen his vi- 
brations and help him to break these prison bars, to throvi 
off their terrible weight and to release himself from the 
heavy load that surrounds him. If you have received the im« 



USE AND ABUSE OF PSYCHIC POWERS. 145 

pression of depression from him, be sure that there is some 
reason for it, and that this is an opportunity for you. Since 
man is in truth a spark of the Divine, there must always be 
that within him which will respond to your strong, calm lov- 
ing thought, and so he may be reassured and helped. Try to 
put before him strongly the feeling that in spite of his per. 
sonal sorrows and troubles the sun still shines above all, and 
there is still much for which he ought to be^thankful, much 
that is good and beautiful in the world. Often you will see 
the change that is produced and this will encourage you to 
try again, for you will learn that you are utilizing these psy- 
chic powers which you possess — first your sensitiveness in 
discovering what is wrong and then your thought in order to 
help to put it right. 

SENSITIVENESS MISUSED. 

Yet this faculty of sensitiveness also may be misused. A 
case in point would be if we allowed ourselves to be de- 
pressed, either by our own sorrows and sufferings, or by com- 
ing in contact with depression in others. The man who is 
specially sensitive will often meet with much that is unpleas- 
ant to him, especially if his lot is cast in a great city, or in 
the midst of what is called modern civilization; yet he should 
remember that it is emphatically his duty to be happy, and to 
resist all thoughts of gloom or of despair. He should try his 
best to imitate on the higher planes the action on the phys- 
ical plane of the sun, which is so glorious a symbol of the 
Logos. Just as that pours out its light and life, so should 
he try to hold a steady, calm, serene center from which the 
grace and the power from on high may be poured out upon 
his fellow-man. In this way he may become in very truth a 
fellow-worker with God, for through him and through his 
reflection of it this divine grace and strength may reach 
many whom directly it could not reach. The physical sun 
floods down its life and light upon us, yet there may easily 
be caverns or cellars into which that light cannot penetrate 
directly; but a mirror which is upon the earth and upon the 
level of the cavern or the cellar may so reflect these glorious 
rays as that they may reach to the innermost extremity and 
dispel the gloom and darkness. Just so it sometimes hap- 
pens that man may make himself into a mirror for the divine 
glory, and that through him it may manifest to those whose 
eyes would otherwise remain blind to its glory. 

Trouble and sorrow come at limes to us all, but we musti 
not selfishly yield ourselves to them, for if we do we shall in- 



14 6 USE AND ABUSE OP PSYCHIC POWERS. 

evitably endanger others; we shall radiate depression around 
Us and intensify it among our friends. There is always 
rnough sorrow and worry in the world; do not therefore self- 
ishly add to it by mourning over your own share of the 
trouble and the sorrow, but rather range yourself on the side 
of God who means man to be happy— set yourself to en- 
deavor to throw off the depression from yourself, so that you 
may radiate at the least resignation and calmness, even if 
you cannot yet attain to the height of positive joyousness. 
Along this line also there is a great and splendid work for 
everyone of us to do, and it lies close to our hands if we will 
but raise them to undertake it. 

Another way in which it would be possible for us to misuse 
this qualification of sensitiveness would be to allow ours elves 
to be so repelled by the undesirable qualities which we sense 
in men whom we meet, that we should be unable to help 
them when an opportunity is offered to us. Every good and 
pure person feels a strong sense of instinctive repulsion from 
that which is coarse and evil; and from this undoubted fact 
a good deal of misapprehension has arisen. If you met soms 
one coarse and vulgar you would feel that sense of repul- 
sion; but you must not therefore conclude that every tims 
you feel the sense of repulsion you have necessarily met with 
that which is terribly evil. If we regard the matter simply 
from the material level, the reason for the strong repulsion 
between the man of pure mind and the man whose thoughts 
and feelings are impure is simply that their vibrations are 
discordant. Each of them has within his astral body some- 
thing at least of matter of all the levels of the astral plane jj 
but they have used it very differently. The good and the 
pure man has persistently developed the finer type of vibra- 
tions which work most readily in the higher types of astral 
matter, whereas the man of impure thought has scarcely util- 
izedthat part of his astral body at all, and has strengthened 
and intensified within himself such vibrations as belong es» 
pecially to the grosser type of matter. Consequently when 
these two come together their vibrations are utterly inhar- 
monious and produce a strong sense of discord and discom- 
fort. So they instinctively avoid one another, and it is only 
when the good man has learnt of his duty and his power to 
help that he feels it incumbent upon him to try, even though 
it be from a distance, to influence his inharmonious brother. 

We have, however, to remember that two persons who ar« 
in every way equally good and equally developed may never* 



USE AND ABUSE OP PSYCHIC POWERS. 14 7 

theless be very far from harmonious. Although the differ* 
ence between them may not be so extreme as that which we 
have instanced, it may nevertheless be quite sufficient to pro. 
duce a decided sense of inharmony and therefore of repul- 
sion. It is therefore by no means safe to decide that, when 
we feel a distaste for the society of a certain person, that 
person is therefore necessarily wicked. This mistake' has 
so very cften been made by good and well-meaning people 
that it is worth while to emphasize it somewhat strongly. It 
is true that such a feeling when decided does indicate a de- 
gree of inharmony which would make it difficult to help that 
person along ordinary lines, just as when we feel at first 
sight a strong attraction to some one, we may take it as a 
certain indication that here is one to whom we can be useful, 
one who will readily absorb from us and learn from us. But 
nevertheless it is also possible for us to overcome this feel- 
ing of repulsion, and where there is no one else to give the 
needed help it of course becomes our duty to do so. 

All then should try to realize these psychic powers which 
they already possess, and realizing them should determine 
to use them wisely and well. It is true that the responsibil- 
ity is great, yet let us not shrink from them on that account. 
If many are unconsciously using these things for evil, then 
all the more is it necessary that we who are beginning to un- 
derstand a little should use them consciously and for good. 
Let us then welcome all such powers gladly, yet never forget 
to balance them with careful study and with sound common 
sense. In that way we shall avoid all danger of misusing 
them; in that way we shall prepare ourselves to use other 
and greater powers as they come to us in the course of our 
evolution — to use them always for the furtherance of the 
great Divine Scheme and for the helping of our fellow-man. 



The "Scheme of Salvation" 



Independent Thought and Research, Public Schools, 

and Science Changing the Old Order of 

Things, by H. V. Sweringen, M. D. 

Although born and reared in the orthodox Christian 
church, much of my instruction therein did not appeal 
to my reason. Like many others I accepted it tacitly or 
apparently, because I manifested no antagonism against 
it. I did not care to rebel against the teachings of my 
parents or be ostracised and considered a heretic or in- 
fidel by my friends and acquaintances. To be a church- 
member or church-goer was the principal requisite for 
admission into society, no matter how often the theater 
and ballroom or other questionable places of amusement 
were frequented. But whenever I came to serious reflec- 
tion upon certain dogmas of the church, the more I 
thought of them, the less I thought of them, and the 
sooner did I dismiss them from my mind. There seemed 
to be nothing to them that I could grasp as a temporary 
hold until a stronger one should present itself. There 
is much, very much, that I do not understand, such as 
electricity, wireless messages, the phonograph, astronom- 
ical and geological problems, and so forth, but all of 
them afford holding-on places or standing places of en- 
couragement for further research, together with assur- 
ances that satisfactory knowledge of their subjects will 
ever and anon become imparted. 

If I have a right to judge other people by myself, 
by my own thoughts and reflections, there are thousands 
upon thousands in the various churches who dare not 
and will not entertain and mentally digest or discuss 



THE SCHEME OF SALVATION. 149 

various orthodox teachings with any probability of their 
final acceptance. People are thinking, even if they do 
not all express their thought. This is an age of thought; 
of independent thought. 

We notice the manifestation of this fact among the 
masses — the laities of the professions of law, medicine, 
and theology. As physicians, we know that the average 
patient is much more informed and gives evidence of 
greater independent thought and research than was the 
case even a quarter of a century ago. And the general 
cry of preachers is, "How can we reach the masses?" 
It being seemingly impossible for them to keep their 
pews occupied as formerly. Thought! thought! Inde- 
pendent thought and research, public school education, 
scientific investigation, are changing the old orders of 
things. 

It is now extremely difficult for the average thinker 
to accept the Christian scheme of redemption. The idea 
that the God of this universe of worlds, the magnitude 
of which staggers us in its contemplation, should devise, 
concoct, or plan a scheme for the salvation of his 
creatures from the effects of his failure in his original 
design of creating a successful, happy world! 

Indeed, the idea that an all-wise, all-just, all-good, 
omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient God should have 
made a failure in anything is unthinkable, as is also 
therefore any "scheme" or "plan" he may devise to cor- 
rect it. The fact is, that, if that failure should occa- 
sion the loss of a single, solitary soul, the "scheme" 
or "plan" of salvation adopted for its correction is itself 
a failure, and would suggest the necessity of another 
"scheme" for the redemption of its effects. 

Our orthodox preachers teach us that about six thou- 
sand years ago Adam and Eve, our first parents — al- 
though science teaches us that man existed on the earth 
hundreds of thousands of years before they were created 
— fpJl from a condition of purity and perfection in which 
God had created them, to one of sin and total depravity, 
by an act of transgression which consisted in eating an 
apple, the fruit of a tree they were forbidden to eat. 
It seems, from this narrative, that the Lord God, who 
forbade the eating of the apple, was a real personality, 
who talked to our first parents face to face, and who 



150 THE SCHEME OP SALVATION. 

walked in the garden (or rather his voice did) in the 
cool of the day, calling, "Adam! Where art thou?" 
This was after, the deed was done that consigns the great 
masses of the human race to a hell of fire and brim- 
stone — after the transgression of eating of the tree of 
knowledge of good and evil was committed, when Adam 
and Eve discovered their nakedness and the Lord God 
kindly began to make coats of skins, by which to clothe 
them. He then drove them out of the garden, and so 
forth. Now upon this story the Christian religion is 
founded. It is the principal, fundamental plank in the 
orthodox platform. If, as science teaches, man has lived 
on this earth hundreds of thousands of years before the 
time of Adam and Eve, what effect does their transgres- 
sion have upon their ancestors? Can it be said that 
Jesus came to redeem mankind from a sin committed by 
one who was not our first parent, the common father 
of mankind? And why did Jesus postpone his coming 
to redeem the human race from the effects of Adam's 
sin full four thousand years, during which time millions 
upon millions lived and died without the benefits of his 
atoning blood? Will those who lived from Adam to the 
time of the coming of Jesus and those which science 
teaches lived long anterior to Adam — the pre-Adamic and 
post-Adamic races of men, all share alike in the benefits 
derived from the death, resurrection and ascension of 
Jesus? If mankind existed long before the time of Adam, 
how can it be- true that death is the direct result of 
Adam's transgression? This whole story seems to me 
weak, feeble, childish, foolish, unworthy the attention of 
an intelligent paan, to say nothing of that of an all- 
wise God. Perhaps I am not intelligent enough to grasp 
or understand it, and shall be everlastingly condemned 
for not accepting and believing it; but, if so, I cannot 
help it. "As a man thinketh, so is he." "As the tree 
falleth. so it lieth." This story may be one of the great 
mysteries of Godliness. 

Recently I heard a preacher from his pulpit say that 
God was not a material personality to be seen and felt 
and recognized as we recognize each other, and so forth. 
I am aware that St. John informs us that God is a spirit, 
and St. Luke tells us that a spirit has neither flesh nor 
bones. It is a conundrum, then, how God walked in the 



THE SCHEME OF SALVATION. 151 

Garden of Eden; made Adam from the dust; breathed 
into his nostrils the breath of life; made coats of skins 
to clothe the nakedness of Adam and Eve; walked with 
Jacob and cursed the serpent together with doing many 
other things difficult of doing without material or phys- 
ical assistance. 

Could he have accomplished all these things without 
the employment of material organs or physical means? 
Is riot God represented in the Bible as both physical and 
spiritual? Of course, such scriptural announcements as 
"I have seen God face to face," and "No man hath seen 
God at any time," must be reckoned with. We are told 
that Jesus was God. If this be true, then God was seen 
many times. He was a physical personality, and, accord- 
ing to the Bible account, ascended bodily into heaven. 
Now, are we to understand that God the Father is spirit 
only, and God the Son (Jesus) was both body and spirit? 
We are not informed as to the Holy Ghost on this point. 
At least, I am not. We have, however, Bible evidence 
tending to show that God the Father was a material, 
physical being, and must have been seen as such by Adam 
and Eve. How else can we interpret the story of the 
Garden of Eden? 

Ar.d so, this question of the "Scheme of Redemp- 
tion" is so interwoven with considerations branching out 
in every direction, involving so many self-evident absurdi- 
ties, that the more it is studied, the more disposed the 
student is to let it alone. There is no satisfaction in 
studying or investigating it. One would naturally sup- 
pose that religion and religious subjects would engage 
the attention of the people everywhere and in every place, 
as being of far greater importance and interest than any 
other question in the world. But for some reason or 
other these questions are let severely alone. Even the 
pulpit of the present day steers clear of discussing the 
"Fall of Adam," "Total Depravity," or the "Plan of Sal- 
vation." It is high time the church was injecting into 
itself something of interest, something to attract the at- 
tention of its rapidly declining laity. 

Now that the Right Rev. Bishop Fallows has discov- 
ered the North Po'e of theology, we may expect that his 
priority of discovery will be challenged by some Peary 



152 THE SCHEME OF SALVATION. 

in the orthodox pulpit, and thus stir up an unusual inter- 
est in church questions. 

Spiritualism is not only the North Pole of theology, 
but it is the South Pole, the sun, moon, and stars, the 
equator, and the circumference, the comets, the all of 
theology and Christianity. It is the Great Theological 
Observatory, from which we take our bearings in every 
direction, pertaining to the best, most important inter- 
ests of mankind. It is the actual demonstrated evidence 
and truth of a future existence. 

But I am wandering away from the subject in hand, 
that of the "Scheme of Redemption," the mere thought 
of which "Scheme of Redemption" is suggestive of al- 
most anything and everything else than that in which 
the great Creator of this universe could be engaged. 
Think of it! A scheme whereby the great God seeks 
to mend, to patch up a most grievous, serious blunder 
in the cosmic economy! What is this "scheme"? 

We are told that 

"In Adam's fall 
We sinned all." 
This, to start with, is unjust, unkind, and unreasonable. 
The idea that one man's sin, eating forbidden fruit, 
should entail such eternal suffering in an eternal hell 
of fire and brimstone, is — well, I have no words in my 
vocabulary sufficient to express my opinion of it, and 
so we will let it pass. Then we are told that it required 
the crucifixion, its consequent suffering and death of a 
God-man, to cancel Adam's sin of eating the apple. 

Our Presbyterian friends teach that God foresaw that 
Adam would fall, and that posterity would be damned in 
consequence, and therefore our heavenly Father selected 
a few called the "elect," to be saved, while the many 
will be lost. This is worse and more of it. Before this 
saving of the "elect" "four hundred," however, it was 
necessary that the life of Jesus should be sacrificed as a 
vicarious punishment for Adam's eating of the apple. 
Is it possible that the Presbyterian church teaches this 
horrible doctrine? If God knew — and what did he not 
know? — that Adam would fall, and that posterity would 
be damned, could he not, being omnipotent, have pre- 
vented such a terrible calamity from falling upon the 
human race, the creatures of his creation? 



THE SCHEME OF SALVATION. 153 

Other churches teach that the sufferings of Jesus se- 
cured for us only constitutional pardon for our effects 
of Adam's sin — of eating the apple. In order to secure 
the lull advantage of Christ's sufferings, we must have 
faith that Jesus died as a sacrifice for us, as a substitute, 
and that, innocent as he was, he yielded to his punish- 
ment for the sins of the whole world. And thus was the 
innocent punished for the guilty, the original sin having 
been ccmmitted four thousand years before, under cir- 
cumstances of temptation it was impossible for Adam to 
withstand. God not only placed Adam in the midst of 
tempting surroundings, creating within him an ardent 
desire for the fruit he forbade him to eat, but he created 
a tempter (the snake) for the purpose of persuading 
Adam to eat of the tree of knowledge. 

Talk about a "Scheme of Salvation"! Who can read 
this story of the Garden of Eden without concluding that 
it was in that garden that the "Plan of Salvation" had 
its rise, its beginnings? It was a "scheme" from the 
very start. Adam did not know that he was disobeying 
the command of God until after the deed was committed, 
because it was not until he had eaten of the fruit of the 
tree of knowledge of good and evil that his eyes were 
openec 1 to an understanding of good and evil. He was 
no more aware that he had committed a serious sin in 
eating of the apple which Eve had given him, than he 
was aware that he was minus a rib taken from him 
while asleep by the Creator's most skillful surgery, which 
was in itself a "scheme" of no small importance. In- 
deed, every one of the Almighty's "schemes" prosecuted 
in the Garden of Eden were successful as "schemes," 
according to program apparently prepared in advance. I 
am glad and proud of the fact that we have at the 
head of this nation today as its President, a man who 
repudiates all such "schemes of Redemption," and who 
regards the object of Christ's life rather than his death, 
to be the reconciliation of man to God. "Every man is 
to die for his own sin." "To punish the just is not 
good." 

I cannot understand why the sufferings and death of 
Jesus upon the cross were necesssary for the redemption 
of the world. I would be very glad indeed if some good 
Christian friend would explain to me and the readers oi 



154 THE SCHEME OP SALVATION. 

The Progressive Thinker the necessity of Christ's death 
upon the cross in order to save sinners. If salvation or 
redemption was absolutely necessary, why did not Jesus 
come and sacrifice himself at once after the sin of Adam 
was committed? Why should four thousand years pass 
away, and many generations of wicked people perish, 
before Jesus came to die on the cross? Did it require 
so long a period to perfect the "Scheme of Redemption"? 
Did not God, according to the Bible, have that scheme 
arranged even before Adam's fall? 

Our Christian friends inform us that the death of 
Christ was ordained before the foundation of the world, 
and that man was originally created perfect and immor- 
tal. Now, if it was ordained or pre-arranged by God that 
Jesus the Son should die for the redemption of the world, 
the transgressions of Adam and Eve were only a part of 
God's plan. John tells us that Christ knew from the 
beginning that Judas would betray him. Under these 
circumstances man's free will and moral agency cuts no 
figure at all in the premises. The "plan" was "cut and 
dried" in the way God had instituted it, and Christ's 
choosing any other man than Judas Iscariot would have 
frustrated it. And so Jesus chose Judas, knowing at the 
time that he would betray him. 

The "plan of redemption" as established indicates 
that man had but one course to follow, the one which 
should ultimately lead to the sacrifice of Jesus. Are 
we not then under many obligations to Judas? Without 
his betrayal of Jesus the "plan of redemption" would 
have been a failure. If the death of Christ was pre- 
ordained, was not also "the fall of man"? Does not the 
one depend on the other? "For as in Adam all die, so 
in Christ shall all be made alive." I hope the reader 
will be able to grasp the point I am trying to make, even 
if seemingly I am unable to do so myself. It is because 
1 am so lamentably tangled up in this peculiar, meta- 
physical, theological riddle that I desire some good ortho- 
dox Christian brother to help me straighten out the 
kinks in it. It is a very important question, and we 
should all make the efforts of our lives to understand it. 

The fall of Adam, and the enmity it occasioned be- 
tween God and man, are the causes assigned for the 
necessity of or for the "scheme of redemption" involving 



THE SCHEME OF SALVATION. 155 

the sufferings and death of Jesus on the cross. From 
what we have already observed concerning Adam and 
his surroundings in the Garden of Eden, it is not at all 
surprising that he yielded to the manifold temptations 
so apparently intentionally placed around him, and the 
enmity thus engendered, if any resulted from it, could 
not have been difficult of removal by a God of love. 
If there is nothing but what came from God, the Creator 
of everything, good and evil, the enmity could not have 
been such as to lead to consequences so serious as the 
sacrifice of his own son on the cross and of the millions 
of the human race in endless perdition. The love and 
wisdom and power of the Almighty could certainly have 
devised a much better "scheme of redemption" than the 
one we are considering, should the necessity for such a 
scheme exist; one so successful that not a single, soli- 
tary God-created soul or human creature would be lost 
in the final reckoning; one that would include the safety 
and well-being of the millions who lived and died before 
the times of Adam and Christ. If no man can be saved 
except those who believe in Christ, those who lived and 
died before his coming could not, of course, have known 
anything' about him to believe or disbelieve. If because 
of this fact they are saved, where was the necessity for 
the scheme of redemption? If ignorance of this scheme 
will save from damnation, why should we send mission- 
aries to the heathen to acquaint them with it? By re- 
maining in ignorance of it, they will continue in inno- 
cence, and every mother's son of them be saved, whereas 
if we enlighten them upon it, a very considerable por- 
tion of them will go to hell sure. It seems to me that 
this is a pretty sound argument against missionaries. 



The Significance of Names. 

A Scholarly Article on the subject of their Hidden 

Meaning, by Walter Hudson Rinehart of 

Wheeling, West Virginia. 



The Tubingen school, which inaugurated what is 
known as the Higher or Historical Criticism, has thrown 
a searchlight on the authorship of the books comprising 
what is called the Holy Scriptures, and its researches 
have established the fact that many of these books are 
not authoritative in that the authors are unknown, espe- 
cially so as regards the names attached to them; but 
this wonderful collection of books called the Bible still 
exists as the greatest literary work the world has known. 
The free reading and interpretation of the Bible has given 
rise to innumerable sects, each of which advances text- 
proofs to substantiate its claims to existence and 
authority; but it seems to the writer, that, while inter- 
pretations are many, there is a demand for what is 
called the Lower Criticism, which deals with translation 
and a scholarly treatment of the text, that by systematic 
rules of interpretation we may arrive at some fair and 
just conclusion of what this wonderful piece of literature 
contains, and these rules of interpretation must be applied 
by a school which is non-Christian if we are to have "an 
honest interpretation." Indeed, it has been said there 
never would be an honest translation until atheists take 
it up, and do the work. 

Many of us have long since learned the book is not 
a miracle; was not "written by the finger of God," and 
sent by an angel from Leaven for our edification and 
guidance; but was composed and written by men — so- 
called "Holy men, or old men who were moved by the 



THE SIGNIFICANCE OF NAMES. 157 

Holy Ghost." Leaving out of consideration the mooted 
question of inspiration, the writings of these men should 
be interpreted by the same rule or rules as are applied 
to any other human production, as for instance, a statute 
law; and the fairest and most rational method to inter- 
pret the will of the legislator is by exploring his intentions 
at the time when the law was made, by signs the most 
natural and probable. And these signs are either the 
words, the context, the subject matter, the effects and con- 
sequence, and the spirit and reason of the law. As to the 
effects and consequence of the law, the rule is, that when 
words bear either none or a very absurd signification, if 
literally understood, we must a little deviate from the 
received sense of them. Therefore, the law which en- 
acted "that whoever drew blood in the streets should 
be punished with the utmost severity," was held not to 
extend to the surgeon who opened the vein of one in a 
fit. — \ Elackstone. ) 

The most universal and effectual way of discovering 
the true meaning of a law, when the words are dubious, 
is by considering the reason and spirit of it, or the cause 
which moved the legislator to enact it. For when the 
reason ceases, the law itself ought likewise to cease with 
it.— (Blackstone.) 

From this method of interpreting laws, by the reason 
of them, arises what we call equity, which is defined as 
"the correction of that wherein the law (by reason of 
its universality) is deficient." — (Aristotle.) For since, 
in law, all cases cannot be foreseen or expressed, it is 
necessary, that, when the general decrees of the law come 
to be applied to particular cases, there should be some- 
where a power vested of defining those circumstances, 
which, had they been foreseen, the legislator him- 
self would have expressed. And these are the cases 
which, according to Grotius, "The law does not 
define exactly, but trusts to the judgment of a 
good man;" that is, a spiritual man; or one 
able to distinguish between what is literal and 
what is figurative. And this leads up to the statement 
of Judge Ladd in his article in No. 1135 of The Pro- 
ressive Thinker — "Where the Council of Nice picked up 
these names of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, no one knows." 



158 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF NAMES 

Probably the easiest way to open this exposition is 
quoting the words, "God is no respecter of persons." 
Then why did the writers of the gospels give the names 
of persons to them? Probably, in their perversity, they 
wished to establish some authority for them. Oh, that 
word "authority"! how some people love it! We may 
get away from it some day. Each man is his own 
authority; his own god. 

Considerable light may be thrown on this subject by 
saying the names are not of the authors, or those who 
wrote them, but are the subjects of the books, just as 
Genesis is so called from its treating of the generation, 
that is, of the creation and the beginning of the world. 
The Hebrews call it Beresith, from the word with which 
it begins. The second book is called Exodus, from the 
Greek, Exodos, meaning "going out," because it contains 
the history of the going out of the children of Israel, 
or Jacob, the supplanter (Jacob means supplanter) out 
of Egypt. The book of Leviticus is so called because it 
treats of the beginning of the priesthood. The book of 
Numbers because it begins with the numbering of the 
people. The book of Deuteronomy, which signifies a sec- 
ond law, because it repeats and inculcates the ordinances 
formerly given on Mt. Sinai, with other precepts not 
given before. And it is here worthy of notice that the 
Ten Commandments, which were destroyed by Moses 
when he came down from the Mount, are in this book 
renewed, and differ materially from the first set. Which 
set is humanity bound to observe? 

To save the reader the tedium of mentioning the 
names of the books, it will be interesting to pass to Isaiah. 
The Higher Critics tell us there were two Isaiahs, but 
when one looks at the meaning of the word, from Isa, 
variant of Isha, woman (Genesis ii. 25), and Jah, variant 
of Jehovah, we perceive the name literally means Woman 
of Jehovah; and, by reading the book, we discover a 
description of the. church, not only at that time, but 
prophetical of what the future church should be. What 
matters who wrote it so long as we know it as a beauti- 
ful prose poem prophesying the future of the, church and 
of Christianity! Yes, prophesying, just as our modern 
prophets, the poets, prophesy of the future by what is 



THE SIGNIFICANCE OP NAMES. 159 

known of the past and present; for the ancient prophets 
were of the same class as our modern poets. But this 
brings us up to the gospels and their titles. Matthew 
is the same as the Greek Matthias, and means, as a verb, 
to learn, in the sense of being a disciple. Herein is re- 
corded the beginning and selection of the disciples in 
the new dispensation, and the book accords with the 
book of Leviticus, wherein the priesthood was estab- 
lished. The name of the man who is credited with the 
authorship was Levi Matthew. The next book is cred- 
ited to John Mark. John (Johannes) means bright, 
bright mark. Mark is the English form of Marcus, from 
the Latin, and means "the crushing thing," or "a large 
hammer." The theme of the writer is "Judah is a young 
lion;" and he depicts the Savior as the conqueror of 
all Satanic powers, with a brevity and vividness which 
add force to the heroic character portrayed. Luke is 
Greek for "light," the god of day. The Latin is luceo, 
lux, and so forth. Luke is a Lucifer, a light bearer, and 
the opening sentence of the book might be paraphrased 
thus: "Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set 
forth in order a declaration of those things which are 
most surely believed among us, it seemed good to me also 
. to write and throw some light on those things 
wherein thou hast been instructed, most excellent Theoph- 
ilus, or lover of God." In other words, from his point 
of view, the author wished to write another life of Christ, 
or Jesus, shedding new light on some things concerning 
the man Jesus which other reporters had overlooked or 
omitted. Let us examine the meaning and significance of 
Lucifer. In the thirteenth and fourteenth chapters of 
Tsaiah the prophet took up the burden of Babylon, which 
is the Greek form of Babel, symbolic of confusion (con- 
fusion of tongues, or sects), and with a proverb, or taunt- 
ing speech, said, "How hath the oppressor ceased! the 
golden city (or exactness of gold) ceased! The Lord 
-hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the scepter of 
the rulers. He who smote the people in wrath with a 
continued stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is 
persecuted, and none hindereth." Pope Pius the Ninth 
was deprived of temporal power and became a prisoner 
in the Vatican in 1870. In 1900 Pope Leo XIII. was by 
the supreme court of Italy made a subject of Italy, made 



160 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF NAMES. 

amenable to the law courts, and thereby figuratively 
"cut down to the ground." Up to 1900 the pope exer- 
cised independent jurisdiction. And then <came to pass 
the saying, "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer 
(light bearer), son of the morning! how art thou cut 
down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! 
For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heav- 
en, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. (A 
brilliant star denoted an illustrious prince), I will ascend 
above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most 
High." Read the whole chapter and perceive how it fits 
Rome like the paper on the wall; and also learn that Lu- 
cifer was no angel fallen from heaven in the literal sense, 
but a light-bearer, the systems of Judaism and Catholic- 
ism united in Christianity, which bore the light of relig- 
ion down through the ages. Heaven is symbolical of gov- 
ernments and ruling powers; and truly there was war in 
heaven, and yet is. 

A free translation of Revelation xiii. 18 might be 
made as follows: "Here is wisdom. Let him that hath 
understanding count the number of the beast: for it is 
the number of the Man of Sin, and his number is 666." 
What or who is the Man of Sin, of error, or lawlessness? 
To go back a little, Simon Peter, the hearkening or hear- 
ing Peter, declares in Luke v. 8, "Depart from me; 
for I am the man of sin, O Lord!" (Read the Greek 
text.) In Mark viii. 3 3, Jesus rebukes Peter and calls 
him Satan, or the Adversary. Peter is a pure Hebrew 
word transliterated, and is not from the Greek "petros," 
a rock, but means "opening," and can be found by con- 
suming Young's Concordance under that word, so that in 
Matthew xvi. 18 a new light is shed on the passage 
which has caused so much contention in the past over the 
establishment of the Church. Peter is from the Hebrew 
P T R. (Pe, Teth, Resh; literally, the mouth of the 
serpent man). The mouth of the serpent man fulfilled 
the signature of his name in his "opening" sermon on 
the daj- of Pentecost, and then and there started all 
this trouble we have been experiencing since. And as 
this "mouth of the serpent man" once denied his Lord 
on the occasion of the "cock crowing," this old Mother 
Hen has been teaching her brood of chickens ever since 
that the Sun of Righteousness cannot rise in our hearts 



THE SIGNIFICANCE OF NAMES. 161 

until this Cock of the Walk, this leader of the Church, 
crows over his victory of the world, and all these 
chickens are gathered under the wings of this old Mother 
Hen. It is Peter that holds the keys that "open" the 
gates of Heaven and Hell; and "the day of Christ shall 
not come until that man of sin, of error, or lawlessness, 
be revealed. And for this cause God sendeth them a work- 
ing of error, that they should believe a lie; that they all 
might be judged who believed not the truth, but had 
pleasure in unrighteousness." (II Thess. ii. 11, 12, R. V.) 
O this "Woman of Jehovah!" "She is arrayed in 
purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and pre- 
cious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand 
full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication; 
and upon her forehead a .name written, Mystery, Babylon 
the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of 
the earth." And the "harlots" are those who came out of 
her womb — the many sects of Christendom. "And here is 
the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are moun- 
tains, on which the woman sitteth. (Rome is built on 
seven hills.) "The waters which thou sawest, where the 
whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations 
and tongues. . . . And the woman which thou sawest 
is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the 
earth." . . . "And their dead bodies," of the two wit- 
nesses, the Jew and Christian, "shall lie in the street 
of the great city, which spiritually (or figuratively) is 
called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was cru- 
cified." (Revelation.) If the mother is corrupt, what 
becomes of the children? If the foundation is rotten, 
what becomes of the superstructure?. I apologize to 
Herbert Kaufman for the following very appropriate 
lines entitled "The City of the Gilded Tear." 

Babylon, O Babylon, 

Shall the day be never done? 

Shall thy course be never run? 

Shall thy towers never fall? 
Must we ever heed the call 
To the revel in thy hall? 

For uncounted, awful years 

Have thy gemmed and painted dears 

Drunk the wine whose dregs is tears! 



162 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF NAMES. 

Soulless city of the night, 

In thy false distorting light, 

Right is wrong and wrong is right! 

Vice berots the fruit you sell. 
He who heeds the tales you tell, 
Listening, finds the keys to Hell! 

Thou wert old in Pharaoh's reign, 
Old when Nero dealt in pain, 
Old when Christ was born in vain! 

Trojan Priam's walls are downed; 
Caesar's Rome lies under ground; 
But thy temples still abound! 

Ever are thy spires near — 
Shalt thou never learn to fear s 
City of the Gilded Tear? 



Origin of the God Idea. 

An Invention of Ignorant Man, to Account for what 

he Saw, but could not Understand, by J. R. 

Perry, of Wilkesbarre, Pa. 



The God idea consists in a belief in a masculine per- 
sonality who rules and regulates the world and all the 
affairs of mankind. By some, this being consists of a 
pure intelligence, free from any mixture of body or parts; 
an oversoul, a something beyond and outside of matter 
in any form. It is a conception founded on nothing, 
as there can be only two things or conditions — one is 
matter, something; the other is no matter or nothing. 
Others believe that God is connected with matter just as 
man is connected with it, only to an infinite extent. 

The God idea is an undefinable quantity, a vague, neb- 
ulous feeling of a something that is absolutely necessary 
to believe in, to insure salvation, and although no two 
persons have an idea that will agree upon what the belief 
consists of, outside of the common one, that he is the 
maker of heaven and earth, and is the constant, ever- 
present ruler of them, yet great sects and cults of reli- 
gion insist that this undefinable being answers prayers 
and tbat he requires the worship of every person, and 
final happiness cannot come to any human being with- 
out it. 

The Christian insists that no matter whether you can 
have any idea of what a God is or not, you must pro- 
fess and believe in one, or be cast outside the pale of 
the church and lost. 

The God idea has caused more strife, contention, blood- 
shed and burning at the stake, and murder generally, 



164 ORIGIN OP THE GOD IDEA. 

than all other wickedness in the whole earth; and all 
this wickedness was brought about because people dif- 
fered in their ideas on the subject of what God is, or as 
to whether there is such a being at all or not. 

When we consult our reasoning faculties, how absurd 
such things seem! What virtue can there be in a belief 
of something we cannot know anything about? And, 
even if such a being existed, we cannot comprehend him. 
And how absurd to think that he will forever damn and 
eternally torment his children for the reason that they 
are required to worship something they can absolutely 
know nothing about. The only virtue consists in the 
knowledge, and any belief not founded on knowledge can 
be of no value. 

The God idea is as old as the human family, and 
can be traced back from the present to the earliest and 
most ignorant people and tribes of men on the earth, 
and the farther we go toward the primitive man, the 
more ignorant and absurd the belief in such God and 
gods appears; the more extravagant and contradictory. 

It was impressed upon the earliest minds through ig- 
norance and fear, and the hold it made was indelible, 
and almost beyond the possibility of erasure; and hav- 
ing been trasmitted from parent to child, and from na- 
tion to nation, accounts for its almost universal belief, 
so that the farther we go back into the realms of human 
nature, the more gods we find, and the greater is the 
variety. Superstition, therefore, is the primitive condi- 
tion of the races of mankind; and, even to this day, the 
more superstitious and ignorant a man is, or a class of 
men are, the more tenacious their faith in some form of 
god to be worshiped and believed in. 

The God idea is a mental tegument which holds us 
fast to the superstitions and ignorant notions of the 
childhood of the human races; and until a general knowl- 
edge of science and the laws of nature is understood, 
this old idea will prevail. Even spirits believe who have 
not outgrown it. When it is once generally known that 
all the laws of nature act from inherent forces, and act 
through the causes and antecedent causes of every event 
in the universe, and that whatever takes place does so 
for the reason that under the circumstances no other 
thing could take place, then the idea of foreordination, 



ORIGIN OF THE GOD IDEA. 165 

or any providential interference, will vanish from the 
minds of men and women, and the world will be apt to 
chaoge its belief in a God or gods, which is now so preva- 
lent. 

If it is a truth that all the operations of nature come 
about by means of causes operating through natural law, 
it must be seen that there is no use or necessity for the 
God or gods believed in, and it will then appear quite 
plain that those gods have been invented to account for 
the things not understood by men, and therefore that 
all gods are man-made ideas. There is absolutely no 
need or room or use for any such man-made God in the 
universe, for the reason that every phenomenon and 
every thing which takes place in nature does so by the 
force of and conditions operating at the time or before 
they occur, the result of natural causes. 

If a God of intelligence and almighty power gave 
special attention to all natural operations, we would not 
find the contradictions, cross purposes, and evils, which 
fill the world. As it is, we find all sorts of antagonisms 
acting in the forces of those natural laws, to the de- 
struction of the peace and quiet and happiness of man- 
kind, for which they are not to blame. The operations 
of nature are anything but harmonious. We have floods 
that destroy many thousands of poor victims, as in 
parts of China today. We have tornadoes, cyclones, fam- 
ines, epidemics of diseases; we have plagues such as the 
black vomit of London, and it is on record that about 
the same time, it traveled to the fjords of Norway, and 
one of its villages was completely depopulated, not a 
single solitary human being remained to tell the tale, 
and only those of the neighboring districts escaped by 
leaving all behind, and running away. The deadly miasm 
filled the air, and all the gods of all the nations and 
all the prayers of their worshipers could not stop the ter- 
rible disaster. It is told to this day from parent to 
child, and has been told for hundreds of years; and yet, 
in spite of the impotency of their God or gods to stay 
that plague, in that very district they have erected a 
church in which the present residents and for hundreds 
of years ago, are now worshiping. Such people are the 
most patient, forgiving, and superstitious of the human 
kind. The truth has been shown a million of times — 



166 ORIGIN OF THE GOD IDEA. 

yes, always — that no God has ever interfered with the 
operations of nature, and all the aid which man has 
received has come from man's own efforts to understand 
Nature and her defects, or the causes of such visitations. 

The laws of Nature do not work for man in any 
special way. They make microbes, bugs, mosquitoes, fleas, 
lice, bacteria, and deadly germs of all kinds; in fact, 
every kind of diminutive pests to annoy mankind. It 
seems to be a gigantic chemical laboratory, in which 
every atom of matter is utilized, in a state of eternal 
unrest and commotion. It cannot be destroyed, and 
cannot cease to move. Motion, life, and energy, are its 
propelling forces, and they seem blind to all appeals and 
cries for mercy. Nature has no more concern for man's 
wants than man has for many of the animated pests 
below him. It destroys men, women and children as 
unconcernedly as a man would shovel an ant-hill over 
the garden fence if it rose in his path during the night. 
To look back at the preceding ages of the earth's opera- 
tions, conveys to our minds the conditions that suggest 
a gigantic slaughter-house. 

In the saurian age, reptiles of all classes were in con- 
stant warfare; a battle royal to the death. The seas 
were constantly red with the gore of their conflicts, and 
at last this continual strife destroyed the monster com- 
batants as they died locked in each other's folds, and 
in the grip of death. This has been the history of life 
as it is written in the great book of geology, and the con- 
flict still goes on. 

Later products of animal life iseem to be no exception 
to the rule. When man got a foothold upon this planet, 
he was but the embodiment of all the conflicting forces 
that preceded his advent, and the same slaughter of 
tribes and nations has continued to this day. It is true 
he has gained experience, and that has made him the 
most intelligent competitor and destroyer on the face of 
the earth, and he forces his opinions and dogmas and 
religious notions to the extent of his individual and col- 
lective ability. The moral conflicts have been just as 
deadly as the dumb brute contests of the geologic ages. 
The thousands of conflicting religions and ideas about 
an imaginary God, who is supposed to control the works 
of nature, answer prayer, and command the worshiper, 



ORIGIN OF THE GOD IDEA. 167 

are just as bigoted and deadly today as they have been 
in the past, except for the knowledge which science has 
given us, and this conflict between the God idea and 
science must continue until the victory is won by the 
acquisition of a complete knowledge of Nature's pro- 
cesses, and the old superstition about a special provi- 
dence dispelled from the minds of men. This will be 
done by the experience of mankind when they have been 
fully educated to the facts of science. 

When will the churches repent for the sins chey have 
committed against mankind under the pretext of religion? 
Wlien will they cease to laud to the skies a book that 
records the most villainous practices of mankind? When 
will they cease to beg the coin of the poor, to send to 
the heathen of other lands, to be spent for the comforts 
and luxuries they enjoy in those lands? When will the 
churches cease to organize those great begging schemes 
like the several lately organized? The layman's crusade 
and now the Men's Forward Movement, all done to bolster 
up the fast-decaying dogmas of the Christian Cause? 
The great Layman's Movement, the Epworth League, the 
Salvation Army, the Pillar of Fire, the American Volun- 
teers, the Pietists, and dozens of other new-fangled reli- 
gious movements, have the primary object to collect 
money out of the industries of our nation, and in time 
must deplete our resources and bring on a financial panic, 
the like of which we have never yet seen. 

When you fill a man's head with a lot of religious 
nonsense, distract his mind from his earthly business, 
and make his disordered and affrighted soul shiver and 
quake from the fear of death and hell, you destroy all 
his interest in life, he quits business, and joins the cru- 
sade of bigotry and superstition, to fight for the Lord, 
his Lord. 

The present unrest of the churches is a psychological 
crusade against the science and intelligence of the world. 
They feel that something must be done to arrest the 
onward march of criticism and unbelief. They find that 
they must cover up their dogmas and differences, and 
unite to gain a hearing from the disbelieving and skep- 
tical masses. They are the symptoms of disease and 
ultimate dissolution, or it may mean the bloody con- 
flicts renewed, that have cursed the world in the past. 



168 ORIGIN OF THE GOD IDEA. 

Why will people pray and worship an ideal being of 
which, from the nature of things, they can know noth- 
ing? They will tell you "they feel his presence, and 
know that their Redeemer lives," and so forth. This 
feeling arises from their religious enthusiasm, and is 
usually a worked-up state of the feelings under some 
religious gatherings and unusual excitements. The truth 
is, that, under such conditions, the mind is affected by 
a sort of religious frenzy, or psychological force, pervad- 
ing the excited congregation, and persons are not fully 
responsible for the things they say and do and feel, un- 
der such circumstances. The Turk, the Hindu, the China- 
man, the Christian, and each' one of the others,- claim- 
ing such close intercourse with Deity, has a substantially 
different feeling, and gives out a different expression, ac- 
cording to his education and religious belief, showing 
conclusively that the manifestation arises from his own 
personal mental condition, and that the cause must be 
from within his own peculiar organism, and that all 
such claims can be no evidence of the existence of any 
such Deity. 

The truth is, that under a strictly scientific test, we 
can not mentally feel a God any more than we can see 
one, taste one, smell one, touch one, or recognize one in 
any possible way. When persons work themselves up 
into a religious frenzy, to that extent they are weakening 
their intellectual perceptions, and rendering themselves 
liable to any hallucination that may accompany a disor- 
dered and frenzied state of the mind. 

There are from fifteen to eighteen hundred million 
human beings on the earth. They are commanded to 
pray, to pray always. Suppose each did this, as com- 
manded, what sort of a bedlam would the world be? 
What folly! When we know that not a drop of rain, a 
fiake of snow, a blast of air, or even the movement of 
a feather, can be, or ever has been, changed by prayer! 
When things have happened on account of prayer, it has 
always been the work of men, or some sentient being, 
who answers prayer. No providence ever interferes with 
the operations of natural law. Even if we assumed that 
a supreme intelligence existed, we have no evidence that 
Nature is controlled by such extraneous power. 

It is more than probable that all minds are the result 



ORIGIN OF THUi GOD IDbA. 1G9 

of the evolutions of nature, and as man may be the 
result, an indestructible being, the future world may 
contain intelligences of very advanced conditions, and 
yet all their progress would consist of a more perfect 
knowledge of universal nature and the refined material 
imagery of their exalted states; of a refined material ex- 
istence. Should matter cease to exist or become diffused 
into the ethereal element, there would be nothing for 
mind to impinge upon, and existence would have to end. 
There is absolutely nothing that man, or the soul of man, 
can learn but the laws, forces, and operations of ma- 
terial being, and those things that are in operation 
around, within and about himself. I imagine he will 
have an eternity in which to study them, and after he 
has gone the length and depth, and breadth, and the 
fourth dimensions of matter and its laws, he will fail 
to find any God, and more especially an orthodox God. 
The God idea was an invention of ignorant man, used 
to account for things he beheld but could not under- 
stand, and as science explains and demonstrates the 
laws, facts, and truths of life, so will the God idea 
depart 



Man's Inner Light, the Sun. 

Some Thoughts by William Borrman as to why 

Hoses, as it is Alleged, Told the Stories 

Chronicled by Him in the Bible. 

\s the sun is to vegetation, so is the inner light to 
the life of man. This is a very good comparison. It 
remains for us only to find the essence, the true meaning 
of this comparison. 

The inner light of man can not perform; it can only 
influence the objective mind, and through the mind the 
body, to perform. Its first function of this inner light is 
to set the mind to think, and then the body to act. 

It is entirely separate of the performing strength and 
the faculties of the body for performing. The former 
is magnetic, the latter electric. This duality makes one 
whole, the entire life of man. This we are able to per- 
ceive with little effort. Now, of the sun we believe it 
is the performing energy — "heat energy" — that produces 
all motion, vegetation, and life on earth. We learn this 
with the very first lessons in natural history in our 
schools. The sun heats the earth, is the common say- 
ing of humans. But when this sun is the inner light 
for the planets and the material life upon them, includ- 
ing men, then it can not be the heat that does the per- 
forming. The sun's light must be something else as per- 
forming energy. It must be "influence" with qualities for 
enlightening, persuading, directing and adjusting for and 
by this performable strength. "Influence and energy," 
this duality is the essence of all life in its organic state. 
But men are endowed with a duality of influence (or in- 
ner light), namely, objective and subjective. The ob- 
jective resulting from the magnetical influence of the 



MAN'S INNER LIGHT, THE SUN. 171 

sun's light, the subjective resulting from the finer spirit 
of the universe centered in the perception of God, the 
universal spirit. The perception of this universal spirit 
we have put in the word "Love" (or Goodness). This 
later light, this light of Love, God, or Goodness, can 
only manifest itself, when the former is well established 
through solution and education. You may call this civ- 
ilization, if this is more plain to the mind. 

It is through this duality of influence of inner light 
(the objective and the subjective) that so many mistakes 
are made even by strong minds by their philosophical 
narration and the conclusions drawn therefrom. Mr. 
Schellhaus, in a late narrative printed in The Progress- 
ive Thinker, dwells at some length on the objective and 
subjective qualities of the mind; and, although he does 
not bring his conception out to its fullness, he plainly 
perceives this duality of thought. The seeming of a 
reality, springing from the subjective mind, can become 
a probable fact, through reason of the objective mind pro- 
ducing analytical or mathematical proofs. It seemed to 
me, too, that it could not be true that the belief that the 
sun heats the earth was a fallacy. Today I see how absurd 
it is to uphold this belief. When we compare the loss 
of light rays from parallel to parallel on our globe 
through slant, with the loss of heat, we find that the 
loss of heat is just double to the loss of light. For in- 
stance. On the parallel of forty degrees, which cuts 
through parts of the state of New York, there is a loss 
of twenty per cent on light rays through slant, while there 
is a loss of heat of about forty per cent as compared 
with the light and heat at the equator. What has become 
of the other twenty per cent? 

I would not give here all the mathematical proofs, 
as it would fill hundreds of pages. I simply mention this 
here in regard to the "seeming." It shows the recipro- 
cal function of each part of the human mind, the ob- 
jective and the subjective. D. W. Hull does not think of 
this duality of the human inner light by criticising the 
story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. This 
story sprung from the objective part of the inner light 
of Moses, just the same as a nice little tale from the 
objective thought of our mothers today is told their chil- 
dren. And very properly so. The whole of the Jewish 



172 MAN'S INNER LIGHT, THE SUN. 

tribes with which Moses had to deal were children in 
their intellect. Probably they asked him how the world 
was made, how men were created, and how sin came into 
the world. This subjective thought directed him to tell 
it to them according to their perception, and just as he 
was able to invent. Later when he spoke, directed by 
higher universal light, he proclaimed: "A thousand years 
are by thee like one day,' and doing so he brought the 
tale he had told about the creation into a different light, 
into light shining from his spirit. But so real as for 
the child is the fairy tale, so real was for the Jewish 
tribes at that time the story of Moses. They could not 
digest solid food, so he had to feed them with milk. 
And there are many of us today that need milk more than 
solid food. To many the story of Moses is better than 
the explanations of the scientist. It is not Spiritualism 
slighting the old. It is Spiritualism finding the new, the 
highei. the better. It is not Spiritualism taking away 
from the children the milk, when they are not able to 
digest solid food; it is Spiritualism to bring the solid 
food into their reach, so they may try it and gradually 
learn to eat and digest it. When they become used to 
it, they will long for it and abandon the old, but behold 
it in a kind memory. 

Criticising is judging; but while the first command- 
ment of the spirits is Love, the second is "judge not." 
Criticising should only be done in the line of correcting 
with the ever-guiding aid of love. What would my chil- 
dren answer me if I told them their mother had told 
them fibs when they were young? Or what would they 
say if I would criticise their mother's fairy tales which 
they have still in their mind after they are more than 
twenty years of age? 

A critic in the nature of ridicule always is wrong, 
even if caused by the best of motives. Remember, even 
fairy tales have their existence. They go from generation 
to generation, even in our materialistic time. Do not al- 
ways believe that things you can disprove by one part of 
your mind are wrong; they are often very right and 
proper when seen by the other part of the inner light. 
Our maxim should be to make the new newer, and let 
the old dissolve itself, which it will do, if there is no 
life in it. 



MAN'S INNER LIGHT, THE SUN. 173 

In the material life we do not criticise the old loco- 
motive, but we behold it in kind regard, because it was 
the greatest thing in days of the past. Moses teaching 
of the creation was allegorical. It was through parables, 
the same as Christ taught; parables of the simplest and 
most beautiful kind. Great religious creeds made up 
of uneducated people are taught today through alle- 
gorical paintings and statues. Such teaching is better 
than no teaching at all. It is through the beauty of such 
allegorical productions that the same civilized man gets 
the first inspiration, the first ray of light into his soul. 
It is the kernel planted that burst forth and grows ac- 
cording to its cultivation. If it only brings a meager 
fruit, it is better than no fruit at all. 

Spirits can think wings on themselves, can think 
themselves into any garment or position they please. 
Why then should such spirits like Moses, still living in 
tne body, not think themselves a garden of Eden with 
Adam and Eve in it? Wings are a perception resulting 
from the sight of wings possessed by birds. The garden 
of Eden may have been the result of the sight of a 
beautiful natural garden. If we hold the wings of angels 
as facts, what cause have we to hold the allegorical teach- 
ings of Moses or the fairy tales of our mothers as un- 
real? Every idea has its existence; and, so long as these 
ideas are expounded for the betterment of humanity, 
we should find no fault. They will dissolve themselves 
as soon as they become unreal or untenable. Far from 
criticising the teaching and stories of Moses to an ignor- 
ant people, I marvel at his beautiful allegorical percep- 
tions. The perceptions of a beautiful garden with all 
kinds of fruits and flowers and lawns, with a tree of 
light, life, and justice in its center, brings the allegory 
pretty near to what the most enlightened Spiritualists 
tell us today about the great "Central Influence" reach- 
ing into every human heart, not alone as the "Inner 
Light" for life, but as a restraint from lust, greed, and 
other evils, which are necessary for the elevation of 
man. This all makes it plain to us how careful we should 
be in our opinion over the opinions of those who were 
before us. It is an ill habit to throw out our chest 
and proclaim, "Father, I thank thee that I am so much 
better, so much wiser, so much more spiritual than the 



174 MAN'S INNER LIGHT, THE SUN. 

old folks." Remember what you have today you have 
through them. So make the new newer, and leave the 
old alone, and those that believe in the old. You hold 
at the present all the conclusions of a Helmholz, Newton, 
Tyndall, Thompson, and many others for facts, so far 
as they have been furnished the proofs through their ex- 
periments. So interesting and so seemingly correct have 
these proofs been carried out, and so careful the conclu- 
sions drawn by the minds of the above-named men, that 
the books, expounding and illustrating the results, are the 
text-books today in all the higher schools and colleges 
inciting our youths with such scientific enthusiasm for 
the objective material triumph that the spiritual light is 
crowded out of their souls. Now, all these so truly 
proven facts are so easily to disprove, that not even a 
shade of truth is left on them. As far as "abstract 
natural science is concerned" the results have not even 
an allegorical value. To the one that would point to 
the great achievements in the last century, I answer, 
they are experimental achievements, and many of them 
are evidently obtained by such experiments and search 
for proofs in other lines. By Newton, it is the only 
perception that there is a natural gravitation of real 
vaUie, but he has not furnished us with the cause, nor 
the ultimate result of this gravitation. Only under a 
great reluctance I have written these later sentences, 
but I could not refrain from it, as I feel they are neces- 
sary to more enlighten the whole. 



From Floating Nebulae to Life. 

Every Body in the Universe Owes its Origin to 

riolecular Action, to the Law of Mechanics, 

By Judge Parish B. Ladd. 



From out the hidden recesses of inert matter, nature 
is ever producing the germs from which a living uni- 
verse is evolved — childhood, tt» ushering in of celestial 
and terrestial life; where, for a time, all is activity, 
then rest and decomposition, out of which other lives 
are evolved. 

No subject of greater moment to the scientist, the 
scholar, the Freethinker, the seeker after knowledge of 
man's origin, than the source of life, which, in its widest 
sense, includes the birth of worlds. 

The origin of the heavenly bodies will first be in 
order, after which, life on our earth. The reader must 
not be surprised to learn that in gravitation lies the 
secret of the origin of worlds, and the life of plants and 
animals on our earth. The births of worlds and ani- 
mals are but different phases of vital action. Life, so far 
as we know, is eternal; it will never have an end. Death 
is but change; a change of form. Each is but the counter- 
part of the other; both the result of chemical action. 
A knowledge of life on our earth involves the study of 
astronomy, geology, paleontology, zoology, new botany, 
embryology, comparative anatomy, and physiology, as all 
relate to the source and development of life. The vital 
energy which permeates the universe, life in its broadest 
sense, applies to the universe, in its limited sense, to our 
earth. It begins with the bioplasm, the vitalized cell, 
found in the ovum of animals, and the ovule of plants. 



176 PROM FLOATING NEBULAE TO LIFE. 

The boundless worlds, with their suns, come into being 
from the vitalized nebulae, possessing a nucleus. Under 
the law of gravitation, one, on looking through the tele- 
scope, sees Nature busy in her vast laboratory, busy in the 
process of world making; there he sees the germ, the 
ceil, the celestial nucleus, and all their moves in the 
process of evolving worlds; all from nebulae, without 
thought, purpose or design. 

Turning the telescope to the south he will see two 
bright spots, near the south pole, Magellanic clouds, 
called nebeculae, the larger covering a space of forty-two 
square degrees. 

Sir John Herschel found those to be patches of nebu- 
losity, in every stage of development; there appeared 
luminous matter, which no power of the instrument could 
resolve, up to perfectly developed stars, like those seen 
in the milky way; rich star clusters were there found; 
nebulae of various shapes and density everywhere abound, 
with globular clusters in every stage of condensation. 

The spectroscope has shown this matter to be neither 
fluid nor solid, but gaseous vapors; some in a very dif- 
fused condition, others in more condensed form, some 
of these, said Sir John, are assuming spherical and oval 
shapes; others seem to pass by slow gradations to 
elipses of various forms, sometimes in straight lines. 
Thus illustrating the process of evolving worlds in bound- 
less space, from luminous matter in its most diffused 
forms. This is just what one sees through the micro- 
scope, in the formation of living beings in the micro- 
scopic cell. 

Nature's process is the same, whether in making man 
or in evolving worlds. The nebulae of which these celes- 
tial forms are composed, is seen, first, to assume a 
strictly spiral form, followed, as in the microscopic cell, 
by a protoplastic germ. 

A number of double and multiple nebulae have been 
observed in process of forming double and multiple 
stars; which, as seen, are revolving around each other, 
with no common center. Surrounding these stars are to 
be seen nebulae of an atmospheric appearance; the 
greatest amount of nebulae is generally found in the 
regions where there are but few stars. Where the stars 
are in immense clusters, they seem to have used up 
the nebulae in their vicinity. 



PROM FLOATING NEBULAE TO LIFE. 177 

The author of "Unfinished Worlds" says, "That man 
should ever have been able to penetrate these unknown 
depths of space, and there behold visible evidence of 
vast aggregations of matter being moulded and fash- 
ioned into new suns and future systems, was a vision to 
which no philosophic dreamer in olden times ever ven- 
tured to point. 

These were the times and things which man, in his 
childhood and supine ignorance, laid hold of to build 
up a system of gods and religions. Some of these new- 
born stars have been seen, from time to time, to change 
their color; to blaze up, then diminish and finally disap- 
pear. Probably nebulae in the first stages of formation, 
being dispersed by the excessive heat of suns, dying in 
their infancy, like most animals on our earth. 

The well-known star, Sirius, has changed its color 
.from red to white during the last two thousand years; 
it may be growing old, soon to die and become a dark 
body. The star, Argus, rose from a dim light, reached 
its full brilliancy January 2, 1838, blazed up March, 1843, 
and diminished to a mere speck in 1867. 

The variable stars — that is, those which are subject 
to the law of mutability — number over one hundred. 
Astronomers tell us of a number of stars, which, for a 
time, became extremely brilliant, then slowly faded and 
finally disappeared. 

All celestial bodies which reflect their own light are 
suns, in various stages of development; all dense masses 
of glowing gas, enveloped with an atmosphere, or, more 
properly speaking, a photosphere, which, like the 
body of the planet, exists in a state of incandescence; 
the spots on the surface of our sun are solar storms, 
sometimes covering spaces thousands of miles in extent. 
They unquestionably exert a great influence on our earth. 
Neptune and Uranus are still in their childhood, both 
in a gaseous form, and this is, in all probability, true of 
Jupiter; dense vapors, says Newcom, are all -that hide 
its interior. 

Comets are celestial babies yet in their swaddling 
c'othos, traveling in search of resting places; they 
always have attracted special attention, owing to their 
eccentricity; they come from without as well as within 
our solar system, and travel with little regard to the 
known laws which govern other heavenly bodies. Like 



178 FROM FLOATING NEBULAE TO LIFE. 

the microscopic protoplasm, they all have a well-defined 
nucleus, which is located in the head, from which seem 
to come the orders for the body's movements. Some of 
them disappear to be seen no more, die in their infancy. 

In 1846, when the Biela comet made its appearance, 
its moves, for a time, were regular; on January 13 
it split in two distinct bodies, each having its own nu- 
cleus. 

This is just what the little microscopic nucleus, in 
the protoplasmic cell, does; in both cases the vital move- 
ments are the same. A new birth has ushered in a celes- 
tial child in one case; and a terrestrial one in the other. 
In each case the germ of life divides, two lives take the 
place of the one. In each case, the nucleus, by the law 
of chemical affinity, attracts to itself surrounding mole- 
cules, which enter into and unite through the numerous 
interspaces of the exterior, when, by the law of condensa- 
tion, the exterior, in the part of the least -resist- 
ance, is pushed out. An oblong body is the result, a 
part of the germ following the elongated body, where it 
sets up a counter attraction. Each center, whether in the 
nebulae, or in the microscopic bioplasm, pulls its adja- 
cent molecules toward itself, until there appears a clos- 
ing of the sac, and a separation takes place. 

Thus the nebulae, like the microiscopic cell, sends out 
its asters, around which other nebulae are attracted; 
yet, for a time, the celestial child, like the protoplasm, 
maintains close relations by the interchange of spores. 
The tail of the comet, like the molecules of the bioplast, 
obeys the law of attraction, and follows the nucleus. The 
Biela comet, on approaching the sun, apparently lost a 
portion of its tail. The intense heat of the sun is sup- 
posed to have scattered the vaporous matter until it be- 
came invisible. It is on this theory that so many new- 
born worlds seemingly disappear, some permanently, 
others only to re-appear. 

It will be remembered, it was this comet which so 
frightened the Christians that the Pope issued a bull to 
drive it from the heavens; but as young as this child was, 
like Luther, it defied the Pope and his bull. 

Let. us now lay aside the study of astronomy, return 
to our little earth, and see what biology has to say about 
life on our planet. But first, the earth itself from in- 
fancy to the first appearance of life thereon. 



FROM FLOATING NEBULAE TO LIFE. 179 

Kant was the first, followed by Laplace and Hersehel, 
to set forth the theory, which has since ripened into true 
science, that the whole universe, in the countless 
aeons of the past, consisted of gaseous chaos in 
different conditions of density; that all, originally, 
formed one homogeneous mass; that no celestial 
bodies then existed; that all was in a nebulous state of 
extreme tensity; that this tenuous matter commenced 
to move; that in places the nebulous matter was heavier 
than in others; that, at the several centers of the more 
solid matter, what is called attraction, commenced to 
pull or push this nebulous matter toward the heavier 
mass; at the center a nucleus of more dense matter was 
formed; toward which the nebulae in the immediate 
vicinity, by the law of gravitation, rushed on to join the 
nucleus. As it could not move in a straight line under 
the lesistance of other particles, its course necessarily 
became spiral, thus presenting the nebulous matter as 
seen in the nebulae, and in numerous drawings taken 
therefrom, all moving in a circle toward the common 
center. This is just what is seen through the micro- 
scope in the little protoplastic cell. 

Thus it will be seen that nature, whether forming 
worlds or building microscopic organisms on our earth, 
works by the same process. In this way the countless 
billions of suns and their satelites come into being; 
worlds innumerable in boundless space, with not an eye 
to behold the stupendous grandeur, no ears to hear, no 
wish, will or thought to guide; no living unit to dream 
of life to be; no thought, purpose or design; nature, 
one harmonious whole, ever moving on the fathomless 
deep. The living heavens aid life on our earth, the re- 
sult of matter and force. 

The man of today stands forth in his boasted majesty, 
but comparative nothingness, and sees through the tele- 
scope the same natural mechanical forces at work creat- 
ing new worlds, some or all to be peopled by men and 
other animals; all to be evolved from dead matter to 
moving and living organisms under the great "law of 
chemical affinity and universal gravitation. 

Under the theory of Kant, now generally accepted, 
there arose a separation of this gaseous matter, which 
has since been going on and giving birth to new worlds, 
just as we shall learn by and by with the microscopic 



180 FROM FLOATING NEBULAE TO LIFE. 

atoms which form a protoplasm, and later, the bioplast 
— the impregnated germ, or nucleus, which propagates 
by simple division, as did our sun, by giving off his 
satellites, and these planets by throwing off their moons. 
This simple division has given rise, and is giving rise, 
to an endless plurality of worlds — multitudes of heaven- 
ly organisms, children of this nebulous ether. 

Under this theory, as applied to the heavens, the cen- 
tripetal force attracts the rotating particles, bringing 
them nearer and nearer to the nucleus, while the cen- 
trifugal force tends to throw them into a straight line. 
In other words, the two forces compel the outer nebulae 
to lag behind, ending in a separation of the gaseous mat- 
ter, leaving the outer to form one or more centers of its 
own, around which, rings, at first, break up into separate 
planets. In this way our moon, and those of other plan- 
ets, were formed. This ring or rings of Saturn are but 
nebulous matter, which, in time, will, in obedience to the 
law of attraction and repulsion, separate into one or 
more moons of their parent. 

By the process of condensation all celestial bodies be- 
come molten masses of burning fluid. All such bodies, 
in their infancy, are suns, reflecting their own light and 
heat, throwing out a photosphere composed of liquids 
and molten fluids. As the planet cools, metallic vapors, 
possessing more specific gravity than aqueous, are more 
readily, drawn toward the center of attraction. In time, 
all the metallic vapors descend to, and form a part of the 
body of" the planet, leaving none other than aqueous 
vapors outside of the solid body. At this stage the 
planet is crusting over; a solid shell is being formed, 
as with our earth at this time. As to our earth, we must 
understand that for countless ages after it had crusted 
over, its heat was mostly derived from the fiery mass 
of burning fluid within the body. Such was its condi- 
tion in the remote past. 

How long our earth remained in a gaseous state, and 
how long thereafter in a fluid condition, before it crusted 
over, no reliable conjecture can be made. All we can 
say is, it must have been countless millions of years. It 
is believed by scientists that when the crust first formed, 
it covered the entire surface; this must have been, from 
time to time, rent and broken up in parts, if not in 
whole, for this breaking is still going on; but the time 



FROM FLOATING NEBULAE TO LIFE. 181 

came when the crust had so thickened and so cooled as 
to permit of the production of the flora and fauna. For 
a long time, as shown by geology and paleontology, the 
climate must have been uniform, or nearly so, the sur- 
face deriving its heat from the interior of the planet. 
It was during these ages that the earth was so densely 
covered with vegetation, and a little later with animals. 
At firs! there was too much carbon in the air for ani- 
mal life. This was the support of the vegetable king- 
dom. 

While a large quantity of carbon was the life of 
plants, it was the death of animals. Animal life could 
not have existed on our earth until the vegetable had 
taken up and absorbed most of the carbon, which went 
to make our vast coal-beds. 

This brings me to the point where animal life on our 
earth comes up for discussion. Where and how did ani- 
mal life make its appearance? But two ways have ever 
been suggested. The so-called Mosaic account, and the 
law of spontaneous generation, which means living mat- 
ter, organic beings from inorganic dead matter. But it 
is said that all or nearly all scientists have given up the 
theory of spontaneous generation. This is only partly 
true, for today nearly all are coming back to spontaneous 
generation. In fact, they never had, only to regret that 
they ever departed therefrom. As to the so-called Mosaic 
account, it is dead and buried. It died when the cunei- 
form v,ritings were unearthed in the ruins of the cities of 
Babylon. Besides, that story was in violation of com- 
mon sense, and in conflict with all the sciences. The 
man of today would possess more courage than brains 
by iDvoking that childish account in support of the origin 
of life on our earth. 

The fundamental properties of every natural body 
are matter, outside of force, which the ignorant call God, 
a pure myth, which has ever been the source and founda- 
tion of the most of human ills. 

If the reader of this article has followed its teach- 
ings with as much interest as I have pursued the authori- 
ties from which it is made up, then will I be duly com- 
pensated for my labor. A little more along this line, 
and it must be closed. 

In an almost fathomless research, the sciences, as I 
find them, show not the slightest difference in the pro- 



182 PROM FLOATING NEBULAE TO LIFE. 

cess of birth and development of man and the rest of 
the living world below him, which, with slight varia- 
tion, applies equally to plants. All life comes from the 
ovule — the egg, which, first divided in halves, then subdi- 
vided until the egg becomes one mass of minute cells 
and out of this seemingly structureless aggregation a 
budding process is first seen. The fetal man has com- 
menced life on the same plane with all the animal world 
below him; first he is a nucleated little cell, surrounded 
with a plasm. At the commencement of -life the brains 
of all animals are about the same. In man's fetal transit, 
the brain takes on, and fina^y possesses one by one, that 
of all the lower forms of life; it is only in the latter 
stages of development that he passes the ape. The ovum- 
egg of all mammals, at an early stage, undergoes the pro- 
cess of segregation; on each side of the tube, formed by 
such segregation, a furrow rises and grows until it laps 
over the tube, leaving it hollow, to be filled with the 
spinal cord; at first, both ends are pointed; in time, one 
develops into an orb for the coming brain; at the other 
end intestines appear, while the heart, lungs and liver 
occupy the middle. 

In early life, the man, the dog, the tortoise, the 
chicken, all present the same appearance. All are born, 
live and feed alike. The man, in his process of develop- 
ment, finally leaves all other animals, and launches on 
the ocean of life to finish his journey alone, as master 
of the animal world. Thus every body in the universe 
owes its origin to molecular action — to the law of me- 
chanics, the human body being no exception; all are 
composed of molecules; the process which builds up 
terrestrial and celestial bodies is the same; all start life 
as a single nucleated piece of bioplasm; all live, grow, 
and die in obedience to the one law, the law of gravita- 
tation, inherent in all forms of matter. 

The millions of suns and their satellites, ever moving 
in boundless space, are but aggregations of homogeneous 
atoms possessing the inherent power of attraction. In 
this way nature collects properties having the unknown 
power of affinity for each other, and calls to her aid the 
law of attraction and chemical combination, as the non- 
intelligible source of formulating life on our earth and 
the birth of worlds. 



Did Jesus Ever Live? 



Ignored by Historians, And Even by the Early 

Christian Authors, as Declared by 

Dr, H. V. Sweringen. 



I do not know that I ever was so much surprised 
previously as I was on reading the announcement of the 
Mangasarian-Crapsey Debate, or rather the question 
that was to be discussed by those gentlemen, viz., "Re- 
solved, that the Jesus of the New Testament is an His- 
torical Personage." I had always known that the Deity 
or Divinity of Jesus was not accepted by very many 
people, including church members, but that there never 
was such a personality as that of Jesus, I do not remem- 
ber of ever having heard seriously affirmed. I have read 
of crucified Saviors, sixteen of them, by Persey Graves, 
and of many characters in history resembling that of 
Jesus of Nazareth, but that the latter existed only in 
myth or legend I did not know was so seriously enter- 
tained until I read this debate which led me to make 
further inquiry concerning it. 

Tho only historical proof upon which Rev. A. S. 
Crapsey, D. D., depends for his or the affirmative side 
of the question, is a passage in the fifteenth book of the 
forty-fourth chapter of the Annals of Tacitus, referring 
to the burning of Rome, in the time of Nero, who was 
suspected of being the incendiary. "Tn order to deflect 
suspicion from him, he ascribed the burning of Rome 
to those people who were abhorred for their crimes, and 
commonly called Christians," says Tacitus, who in the 
modera editions of his "Annals" further states, although 
the statement is claimed to be an interpolation, spurious, 
and so forth, that "The founder of that name was 



184 DID JESUS EVER LIVE? 

Christus, who, in the reign of Tiberius, was punished as a 
criminal by the procurator, Pontius Pilate. This per- 
nicious superstition, thus checked for a while, broke out 
again, and spread not only over Judea, the source of 
this evil, but reached the city also; whither flow from 
all quarters all things vile and shameful, and where they 
find shelter and confessed themselves of that sect; after- 
ward, a vast multitude were detected by them, all of 
whom were condemned, not so much for the crime of 
burning the city, as for their hatred of mankind. Their 
executions were so contrived as to expose them to derision 
and contempt. Some were covered over with skins of wild 
beasts, and torn to pieces by dogs; some were crucified. 
Others, having been daubed over with combustible 
materials, were set up as lights in the night time, and 
thus burned to death. Nero made use of his own gar- 
dens as a theater on this occasion, and also exhibited 
the diversions of the circus, sometimes standing in the 
crowd as a spectator, in the habit of a charioteer; at other 
times driving a chariot himself, till at length these men, 
though really criminal, and deserving exemplary punish- 
ment, began to be commiserated as "people who were 
destroyed, not out of regard to the public welfare, but 
only to gratify the cruelty of one man." 

The foregoing is the passage upon which Rev. Crap- 
sey depends for his contemporaneous historical proof 
that Jesus really lived as a person. If I remember cor- 
rectly, it is the only proof he cites, for he makes no 
reference to Josephus' "Antiquity of the Jews," evidently 
believing that the reference to Jesus in his book is an 
interpolation and grossly spurious. Tacitus wrote the 
foregoing, if he wrote it at all, in the reign of Trajan, 
about forty years after the burning of Rome, which took 
place in July, 64, A. D., at which time Tacitus was a 
mere youth. 

But does it not seem very strange indeed that no 
other historian of that age refers to Jesus or to Tacitus' 
reference to him in the language quoted? Not one to 
my knowledge, of the Christian fathers, quotes Tacitus' 
reference to Jesus, not even excepting Tertullian, who 
was well acquainted with his writings. Clement of Alex- 
andria was particularly interested in the matter, and 
made a compilation of all the recognitions of Christ and 
Christianity, and the writings, of Tacitus furnished no 



DID JESUS EVER LIVE? 185 

recogrHion of them at the beginning of the third century, 
Origen certainly would have made use of such data in his 
debate with Celsus had they existed. In the fourth cen- 
tury, Eusebius cites all the evidences of Christianity 
obtainable from Jewish and Pagan sources, but does not 
refer to Tacitus. Indeed he is not referred to by any 
Christian author until the fifteenth century, when but one 
copy of the "Annals" existed, and this copy,. it is claimed, 
was -made seven hundred years before, or six hundred 
years after the time of Tacitus. This single copy was in 
the possession of a Christian, and the Lord only knows 
what was done with it. He may have appointed himself 
a committee of one to revise it. The severe criticisms 
of Christianity contained in this copy of the Annals do 
not disprove its Christian orign. No ancient witness was 
more desirable than Tacitus, but his introduction at so 
late a, period would make rejection certain unless 
Christian forgery could be considered out of the question. 
In the writings ascribed to Tacitus are some believed 
to bo those of Quintilian. The terrible orgies of Nero 
do not read like Tacitus. No subject at this time was 
punished on account of religious belief without violating 
the Roman laws. The inhuman treatment of Christ- 
ians by Nero is not sustained by the New Testament. 

It certainly is passing strange that so few if any of the 
persons who lived at the same time that Jesus lived, 
and wrote the history of their times, should know so 
little, and say so little, and write so little about a man 
who raised the dead, who arose from the dead himself 
and ascended into Heaven before the eyes of a multitude. 
I can't understand it any more than Napoleon Bonaparte 
could when he asked JohannVon Herder, "Did Jesus 
Christ ever live, or must we put him on the shelf among 
the myths?" 

Is it not passing strange that the many books 
written by the early Christians, some of them giving 
curious and queer details of the life and habits of Mary 
and of Jesus from the latter's unique conception to his 
crucifixion, should never have uttered a word about 
him? Is it not equally strange that concerning 
the most remarkable event in the world, the church held 
a council over these books, and voted them all spurious 
and forgeries to be repudiated "by all who love the 
Lord"? And so they were voted apocryphal and scornfully 



186 DID JESUS EVER LIVE? 

cast out of the Bible, though written by Christians 
with the enthusiasm of devotees for the edification of 
the church and the conversion of the gentiles. 

Is it not very strange indeed that the historians of 
the first and second centuries were seemingly ignorant 
of and unconscious that Jesus had lived in the Roman 
empire? The very custodians of the church merely re- 
peated his name parrot-like, seemingly making no effort 
whatever to add to the traditions concerning him. 

Paul never saw Jesus; but he, it seems, did record 
some rumors he heard about him twenty-five years or 
more before the evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke and 
John had written a word. He made no effort, it seems, 
to verify these rumors or to add to them. Is it not as- 
tonishing that Paul never saw Jesus when both were 
in Jerusalem at the same time? Neither did Fathers 
Clemens, Ignatius, Polycarp, Barnabas, Papias, Hermas. 
Clement, Origen, Eusebius, Justin, or Jerome make any 
effort apparently to add a single fact to what had already 
been reported by Paul and the compilers of the gospels. 

The fathers of the church of the second century 
seemed to have mentioned their Lord in an apologetic 
manner. They seemed to take more interest in other 
peoples's saviors and miracle-workers than in their own, 
as the earlier Jews erected altars to Baal, Ashtoreth, 
and the heathen gods. Justin, the great martyr of the 
early Christian church, in his apology to the emperor, 
said, "Our Jesus was born of a virgin, and so were 
your Castor and Perseus. Our Jesus cast out devils, 
and so did your Esculapius." 

The officers of Rome in Judea were certainly neg- 
lectful of their duty, which was to report to Rome in 
writing every mouth, but none of them had anything 
to say of Jesus or his crucifixion. Felix Antonius was 
the Roman procurator in Jerusalem twenty years after 
the crucifixion, and the priests report that he "trembled" 
when Paul preached, but in his monthly reports he makes 
no mention of either Jesus or Paul. 

Herod Agrippa lived a quarter of a century in Jeru- 
salem as king, but it seems he did not know that Jesus 
lived there the generation before. 

Herod Autipas was tetrach, and is said to have tried 
Jesus. Luke tells us that "he saw all of these things," 
but he never said a word about them. How strange! 



DID JESUS EVER LIVE? 187 

All of these officers and. authors were citizens of the 
same empire as Jesus. 

Marcus Aurelius, who was one of Rome's emperors, 
denounced Christianity as a fable, and the Emperor 
Julian still later wrote an elaborate "Refutation of 
Christianity." 

Porphyry wrote fifteen volumes against Christianity, 
and declared its founder a myth. 

Plotinus, who lived in the second century, left many 
volumes of history and morals, in which not a single 
reference is made to Christ. 

Philo Judeus was born in Alexandria about the same 
time when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. He was prob- 
ably in Jerusalem at the very time assigned to the cru- 
cifixion, but his books do not reveal that he ever 
heard of it. 

Juvenal, the Roman poet, traveler, moralist, and 
satirist, wrote in the next generation after Christ, but 
seemingly never heard of him. 

Lucian lived in the beginning of the second or in the 
close of the first century A. D. He was a scholar, 
traveler, poet and satirist, and lived for a time in Jeru- 
salem. He left behind him several volumes, in which not 
one word is said about Jesus. 

Pausanius lived in the second century A. D., traveled 
through Syria, and left ten books on history. He seems 
never to have heard of Jesus. 

Josephus was born in Jerusalem about the time of the 
crucifixion. His father was a member of one of the 
great priestly families of the city. He was a scholar, 
statesman, and most industrious author, leaving twenty 
books of history to those who should come after him. 
A great part of his life was spent in Jerusalem. He was 
at one time governor of Galilee, and was present with 
Titus at the siege of Jerusalem. So true was he to 
his history that he pays the greatest attention to the 
minute detailing of very small events, those which most 
historians would entirely ignore. He relates almost 
everything except the one important piece of news — that 
of the crucifixion and ascension of Jesus. He never dis- 
covered that such a man as Jesus had ever lived, an 
omission so awfully significant that pious Christians 
thought it not sinful, but really doing the cause of Christ- 
ianity a wonderful service, to forge and sandwich into 



188 DID JESUS EVER LIVE? 

the text of the "Antiquities of the Jews" a page of tes- 
timony to the crucifixion of Jesus, which is so poorly 
executed that it has been discarded long ago even by 
the church as a forgery. Some zealous Christian was 
no doubt inspired by the seventh verse of the third chap- 
ter of Romans. But such zeal and euthusiasm is sure 
sooner or later to react upon the Christian and his cause. 
And so the same may he said of the sentence in Tacitus 
which Rev. Dr. Crapsey refers to in his debate with Mr. 
Mangasarian, although it is not so plain a forgery or 
, interpolation. It does, however, interrupt the narrative, 
disconnecting two closely related statements. 

In all the Roman records there is to be found ab- 
solutely no evidence that Christ was put to death by 
Pontius Pilate. This sentence in Tacitus, if genuine, 
is the most important evidence in pagan literature. That 
it existed in the works of the greatest and best known 
of Roman historians, and was ignored or overlooked by 
Christian apologists 1360 years, is hard to believe. It 
is questionable whether Tacitus wrote the sentence, "The 
founder of that name was Christus, who, in the reign of 
Tiberius, was punished as a criminal by the procurator, 
Pontius Pilate." The fact that at this late day the 
historicity of Jesus should be doubted by such a man as 
Mangasarian, who was for years pastor of John Wana- 
maker's Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, and now 
pastor of an independent free-thought church in Chicago, 
is certainly one of no small significance. What will the 
end be? What are we coming to? The very idea that 
such an important corner-stone in the foundation of 
Christianity should thus be disturbed so rudely 
is one extremely difficult of entertainment. It is most 
emphatically repudiated by the orthodoxy in which I was 
raised, and will be obliged to "wait a time with patience," 
considerable patience, while we investigate the subject 
still further, before we can accept it. 

But I want to know for myself and not for another, 
whether or not I have entertained, all these years past, 
a delusion, an error, a mistake, in regard to the personal 
existence of Jesus the Christ. Did he really live, move, 
and have his being on the earth in the time in which 
Paul and Josephus lived? Have we not a right now to 
demand of the Christian pulpit a settlement of this ques- 
tion, now that Christ's historicity is doubted? Surely 



DID JESUS EVER LIVE? 18 9 

I have no interest whatever in any attack upon Christ- 
ianity, for I was raised in the orthodox church, and my 
sympathies are very naturally with her. But they are 
more pronounced and far greater in the cause 
of truth, no matter where my discoveries may 
strike. In looking up this question, I have, of course, 
made free use of authorities. It could not be otherwise 
in the treatement of a question that is historical in 
character. I have made frequent quotations from W. A. 
Croffut, Ph. D., whose researches are most valuable. I 
also have consulted other authorities without giving their 
names, or always giving the quotation marks to their 
utterances. It is understood then that very little of the 
foregoing is original with me. My interest, zeal and 
enthusiasm are all contained in my great and 
only desire to have this question settled if possible in or- 
der to keep it from ever and anon recurring to harass our 
posterity. All such questions should be settled now. It 
is so surprising that it was not settled for ever at the 
Council of Nice or before. I never dreamed that the 
historicity of Jesus was not settled, or that there could 
be any facts or arguments introduced against it. 

Is there anything wrong in my asking the reader, 
whoever he may be, his opinion on this question, what he 
knows about it, and whence his proofs and knowledge? 
It is not my purpose to confuse or embarrass any person 
whatever. I am simply a child sitting at the feet of the 
theological teacher, asking to be instructed. If it is the 
duty of the pastor to instruct, to feed his. lambs, 
I shall be made satisfied. The question is not a 
secret one, for the confessional, the whole of Christian- 
ity is interested in it, and I hope that the answer, from 
wheresoever it comes, will be scattered as broadcast as 
this article may be. 

Suetonius wrote voluminously the history of emperors, 
but says not one word of Jesus, the great martyr of the 
emperors. 

Plutarch, born about the date of the crucifixion, wrote 
more than a hundred lives of distinguished men, but 
never mentioned his countryman and fellow-citizen, Jesus 
of Nazareth. I cannot understand it. I cannot under- 
stand it. What does it all mean, my reader? What does 
it all signify? 

Jesus was not mentioned by the historian Cornutus; 



190 DID JESUS EVER LIVE? 

by Lucan, his friend; or by Persius Flaccus, his pupil, 
who wrote historical works still extant; or by Probus 
Valerius, his biographer. 

Pliny the elder, born A. D., 2 3, never mentioned 
Jesus, though he finished the great Roman history of 
Aufidius in thirty-seven volumes, which dealt largely with 
events in Palestine, and left more than a hundred other 
bookis. He was an expert authority on earthquakes, but 
he did not make any note, even from hearsay, that the 
walls of the temple were "rent in twain," and the rocks 
were sundered, when the man of sorrows expired. 



Philosophy in Sentences. 

Speak to the Earth, and it shall Teach Thee, is 

the Belief of Henry Morrison Tefft 

of Norwich, N. Y. 



It is only to a few, in comparison to the untold mil- 
lions that have inhabited the earth, that we owe our 
philosophy, our science, our religions. We are living 
in times of independent thought. It has been brought 
about by heroic souls who dared face obloquy, endure 
ostracism, and be called heretic, fanatic, and treated as 
men whose teachings were unsafe to follow. This is true 
in both church and state. The pulpit is continually grow- 
ing more and more liberal. Clergymen refuse to be 
bound hand amd foot by some creed made hundreds of 
years ago. The press, both secular and religious, are 
every year taking a wider view, speaking more and more 
for the people and less and less for some particular sect, 
party or section of the country to which they belong. 
The influence that party organs and sectarian newspapers 
have over the minds of their readers is declining. 
Politically, socially, religiously, everything seems to be 
unsettled. 

"Just before us," says a writer, "are momentous 
events. Signs portending flash athwart the social sky. 
Uneasy sensations course the industrial fabric. Amid 
plenty, the fear of disaster is a nightmare. Confidence 
in old maxims is falling. Fealty to party is shaking. 
The giant Public is feeling about it for the reason for 
this sensation." The time is coming when there will 
be no use for a statesman that cannot and dare not rise 



192 PHILOSOPHY IN SENTENCES. 

above his party and speak for all parties, classes and con- 
ditions of society. 

Theological doctrines are undergoing great change. 
The world pays but little attention to the profession a 
man makes, nor to the doctrines and beliefs to which he 
subscribes; it is the life he lives to which attention is 
directed. Some people can live a Christian life without 
the aid of church, and some cannot. Some people would 
be honest, religious, god-like, if they had never heard 
of a Bible. There is a religion higher than ever was 
taught in the ritualism of any church, a prayer holier 
than ever was printed in any book, a creed that knows no 
language to express. There is a great deal more of 
"the form of prayer" than there is of "the spirit of 
prayer." God speaks to me with joy in a song, with 
beauty in a flower, with tenderness in a dewdrop, with 
sadness in a tear. It does not require any set 
form of words to approach the Infinite Presence. 

"Without star or angel for their guide, 
Who worship God shall find him." 

Old ideas, old beliefs, are giving way. A feeling of 
uneasiness and unrest pervades the thinking, meditative 
public mind. The wise and the learned are looking after 
a universal system of Christian belief— one founded upon 
science, reason, judgment and common sense. Difficult 
problems can no longer be explained by miracles. There 
is no God that can violate a law of nature. He cannot 
stop a cyclone until it has run its course, nor quench a 
rain-storm until the foundation is exhausted. I am a 
firm believer in the church as an institution and in the 
Bible as a book. The highest state of civilization cannot 
be maintained without both. Men can disagree in regard 
to the teachings of the former and as to the interpreta- 
tion of the latter without condemnation of either. The 
world has never been without its prophets. We have 
no wiser men now than they had in ancient times. Wis- 
dom is old. Henry George once said, "We are not in- 
creasing in intellectual stature — we are only taller by 
reason of the high pedestal upon which we stand. We 
are higher by reason of all progress, learning and civil- 
ization of the past." 

No one knows where a single thought, idea or prin- 
ciple originated, nor how many times it has been kneaded, 



PHILOSOPHY IN SENTENCES. 193 

turned, or mixed. One man gathers up the experiences 
and the experiments of a dozen others, weaves them into 
a single thread, and it becomes a cable and carries a 
message beneath oceans from continent to continent; or 
it becomes a telephone and sends a whisper around the 
world in a moment of time. 

The mind of man is infinite. It is a part of God. 
Some one has said that "man is a condensed recapitula- 
tion of the whole story of creation." Our knowledge is 
gathered from what we read. We cannot be otherwise 
than borrowers, plagiarists. "Out of Plato," says Emerson, 
"coine all things that are still written or debated by men 
of thought." Men in all ages have drawn from the same 
fountain of truth. We do not originate. We appro- 
priate. Man cannot make a law: he can only use it. 
Nature furnishes the materials, man claims them. Nothing 
has ever been added to or taken from the universe. 

Evolution is not creation. Progress is discovery; 
using old material, old ideas, in a new way. The primal 
elements and principles have always existed; the power 
has ever been the same. The material is old, but its uses 
and combinations are new. Nature is the mother of all 
true art. She is the author of all religions: they come 
in reponse to a divine call. But art can only faintly 
imitate nature. No architect can build upon so magni- 
ficent a scale, no artist can paint so delicately, no deco- 
rator can adorn with so much beauty. 

According to Holy Writ, even Solomon's glory was 
surpassed by the lilies of the field. The poet says — 

"As Sheba from the wise King's throne 

Passed home in proud array, 
The hills to mock at Solomon 

Spread Autumn in her way." 

The visible works of man perish, dissolve, and pass 
away. 

"So fleet the works of man, back to the earth again; 
Ancient and holy things fade like a dream." 

You can write your books, but they will be destroyed; 
you can build your monuments, but their existence in 
infinite time will be momentary. The most magnificent 
palace that money can erect will vanish and be forgotten. 
The fame of the greatest man will die out so that not 



194 PHILOSOPHY IN SENTENCES. 

even an echo will remain of his greatness. What is the 
final goal of mankind? Why so much failure and so 
little success? The wisest man is only an interrogation 
point. He asks questions, but answers none. There are 
certain characteristics in the human family that seem to 
be universal; yet every person has an individuality that 
no other represents. 

Man's history does not commence with his birth. It 
dates farther back. The child is patterned before it comes 
into the world. The ideals, the aspirations and hopes of 
the parents enter into its very conception. Robert Louis 
Stevenson says, "Not only do our character and talents 
lie upon the anvil and receive their temper during genera- 
tions, but the very plot of our lives' story unfolds itself 
on a scale of centuries, and the biography of the man 
is only an episode in the epic of a family." 

Most lives are dwarfed; they are never fully develop- 
ed. The majority of mankind are mere phonographs — 
voicing what other people say. Their lives are empty, 
their intellects stupefied, and their minds made barren 
by too much time spent in running after the amusements, 
frivolities and outward displays of life. 

"Couldst thou in vision see 
Thyself the man God meant, 

Thou nevermore wouldst be 
The man thou art — content." 

Each person's work is a part of himself. It is said 
of Charles Lamb that "Almost everything he wrote was 
in some measure confessional, autobiographic. And tha'o 
is why he lives in our hearts today." In art, oratory, of 
composition, there are no duplicates. No one can deliver 
a speech but the man who made it. No one can read an 
article but the one who wrote it. Claude Debussy once 
said that he did not attend the theatre when his com- 
positions were to be rendered, for "The interpretation 
is a 1 ways so different from what I mean it to be; not in 
the singers, but in the general interpretation." The 
reader, the hearer, the interpreter, can never fully put 
himself into another's place. The multitude only see that 
which is apparent to the senses — the outside drapery and 
dressing of life. We can only enjoy those things that 
nature and education have qualified us to appreciate. The 



PHILOSOPHY IN SENTENCES. 195 

heart often has to interpret what the eye sees and the 
ear hears. 

There is a moral grandeur as well as a physical grand- 
eur. There is a spiritual beauty as well as a material 
beauty. There is poetry in movement, in sound and in 
grace of action as well as in words. 

We find in this world just what we are looking for. 

If it is wealth, we secure it; if it is glory, we attain 
it; if it is the higher and nobler enjoyments, such as 
come from the study of science, philosophy and art, these, 
too, will be realized. There is no such thing as obstacle 
or failure to a determined soul. 

"The wise man rules his stars; the fool obeys them." 

We cannot always tell by what spirit we are moved 
or what impels us to action. Our moods change without 
will or volition on our part, and they are governed by no 
known law. Sadness and gladness follow each other, take 
possession of our thoughts, and hold them captive by 
their presence. But no one can spare any of his ex- 
periences if he rightly utilizes them. They all enter 
into and form a part of his education. 

We never fully comprehend the present; it needs per- 
spective. There are certain hours in our lives that are 
worth more to us than weeks and months at others. We 
have no language in which to express our deepest feel- 
ings. The sentimental value of an act or of a word may 
be more helpful, uplifting, and inspiring than the real 
value. Words become oracles, looks, benedictions. 

"The past is always holy — every heart 

Holds something that has grown to be divine; 

What haunts there are where memory walks apart! 
Each common place has some invisible shrine." 



Menace of the Christian Cross. 



A Symbol of Barbarism, Placed in the Path of 

Progress, Blocking the Way for Freedom 

and Human Advancement. 



The symbol of the cross, as presented to the world 
by the Christian churches through its prelates and rep- 
resentatives, has not only enslaved the human mind, but 
misled the world. Thus, through the machinery of the 
church and its hirelings, its form has been gradually and 
deeply impressed upon the mind of all persons who have 
been induced or constrained to accept the creeds, dogmas 
or theories upon. which the Christian religion rests. 

Hence the symbol of the Cross has so long and per- 
sistently been held up before the world, and falsely asso- 
ciated with man's religious nature, that mankind has 
come to look upon it as a sacred if not a holy object. 
History shows most conclusively that the cross as a symbol 
reaches back of the so-called Christian era; and to a 
far distant period, when the conception of civilization 
itself existed in the embryo of time, only as a dream to 
be realized in the future. Its great antiquity has been 
made perfectly evident, not only by mundane history, 
but a wonderful array of evidence coming from promi- 
nent minds in spirit life, whose earthly history marks 
the past centuries and ages of the nations who have 
peopled our earth. 

But that the symbol of the cross was seized upon 
by the crafty fabricators of the Christian religion, as an 
important factor in the propagation of the same, is 
equally evident. They have adopted the false theories 
of the so-called cross of Christ, which appeals only to 
the selfish part of man's nature, that they might the 
more easily and surely capture and hold the unsuspect- 
ing mind under their control. 



MENAGE OP THE CHRISTIAN CROSS. 197 

The secret of the continuance of the theories of the 
Christian religion, and the so-called cross of Christ, as 
formulated by the doctrines of the Church for so long 
a period, lies not in the fact that these theories and the 
ground-work of that religion rest upon the basis of truth, 
but rather in the fact that a cunning and wily priest- 
hood have gathered from the archives of the past many 
gems of truth and inspiration which had been impressed 
upon the mind of the seers and prophets of old (who 
in modern times are called mediums), and these crafty 
fabricators combined and arranged these fragments of 
spiritual truth in the dark background of the creeds, 
dogmas and false teachings of the Church. Gems of 
spiritual truth are ever bright, and all the more brilliant 
is the effect when set in the dark ground-work of error. 
The devotee beholds the brilliancy of the gems, and 
stops not, nor is he allowed to reason, but accepts that 
which he cannot comprehend, dreaming that the bright- 
ness -which radiates from the teachings of the church is 
not of it, but emanates from borrowed lights gathered 
from the fruitage of the ages, previous to the Christian 
church, and its creedal religion. When this symbol, as 
set forth by the Christian church, is associated with the 
finer and spiritual qualities of the human mind, and when 
the so-called teachings connected with the cross are al- 
lowed to vitiate our religious natures, as has been the 
case in the past history of the rise and flow of the contam- 
inating stream of dogmatic - Christianity, it becomes all 
the more dangerous as a means to mislead the unin- 
itiated. 

The representatives of the church, through their cun- 
ningly devised fables and the manipulation of the so- 
called sacred histories of the prehistoric age, adopting 
that which served their purposes, and rejecting the bal- 
ance, Lave with an unswerving purpose held the more 
negative and unsuspecting classes of minds under their 
power. They also have pressed these false theories of 
the cross home upon the minds by the force of authority 
as well as by sophistry until through dogmatical teach- 
ings from generation to generation, and from age to 
age, it has become so embodied in the religious nature 
and sympathies of the human mind that it has produced 
a mcrbid and sickly mental condition which is indeed 



198 MENACE OF THE CHRISTIAN CROSS. 

deplorable, since it follows the soul to spirit life, and 
weighs it down under dark conditions for years and 
centuries. And right here we wish to call the special at- 
tention of many who consider themselves progressive, 
and claim to be in the advance ranks of progress, to the 
fact that at the same time they either allow or require 
their children to become members of Christian Sunday 
schools, thus impressing false theories upon the tender 
consciousness .of the child, which will require years, and 
in some cases perhaps centuries, to eradicate. (There 
is abundant proof as to this fact coming from the spirit 
world, as well as from our own experience.) Observation 
proves that many parents persist in this cruel and un- 
natural course, while they acknowledge their entire dis- 
belief in the Christian religion. 

Another great mistake is made when parents send 
their children to Roman Catholic schools and institutions 
of learning, under the mistaken idea that superior ad- 
vantages are found there for the instruction of the young. 
Nothing could be more fatal to the interests of our off- 
spring than this gross mistake. And, furthermore, many 
parents have lost their children under the influence of 
these Catholic institutions by their being persuaded to 
join them, thus entirely forsaking their parents and 
friends. Particularly are pupils sought after by the rep- 
resentatives of these institutions who have property, or 
are to become heirs to property, which invariably finds 
its way into the coffers of the religious hot-beds of 
error. Many victims have we met who have thus lost 
their children past recovery, and more fully lost them in 
this life than if they had passed beyond the gate of 
death. Notwithstanding all the light and experience 
which has been brought to bear upon these grave and 
unfortunate mistakes, there are many who are unwise 
enough to continue to commit them. 

This Christian symbol, the cross, ever repulsive, by 
reason of the murderous purpose for which it was cre- 
ated and used, meets us at every turn. At the church, 
the cemetery, in jewelry, the world over, also in the lit- 
erary world, it enters largely into all Christian books and 
literature, which are crowded with fabulous stories of 
the cross of Christ, the sentiment of which is unworthy 
to be tolerated by mortal man. Who can, without preju- 



MENACE OF THE CHRISTIAN CROSS. 19 9 

dice, observe the extensive and most universal exhibition 
of the cross, and not come to the conclusion that there 
is method and deep design in keeping it continually be- 
fore the eyes of the people as an ever-present object to be 
deeply impressed upon the faculty of memory? So coni- 
p^tely has it been woven into the minds of the devotees 
of the church that they have blindly accepted whatever 
dogma or absurdity may have been presented to them 
by the priests and religious teachers of the past as well 
as in the present generation. 

Gold and power have also been the incentive to hold 
this vast fabric of false teaching, the web of which has 
been woven year by year down the ages of the past, and 
dyed m blood of millions of innocent and helpless vic- 
tims. Think of the designs that would be displayed 
upon frirfs fabric as the soul is unfolded in the spiritual 
light of the future. Think of the forms and shapes of 
human suffering, both mental and physical, which will 
be engraved thereon, and then let us answer the ques- 
tion for ourselves, whether under the light of the pres- 
ent day we have any use for this monstrosity, the symbol 
of the cross, as bearing upon religious sentiment or any- 
thing connected with the progress of the race. 

Let us consider the object more closely for a moment, 
and ponder its uses. In the dark ages, when what is 
called Christianity was foisted upon the world by a time- 
serving priesthood, the cross was used as an instru- 
ment of torture to slowly drive human life from the 
body; in a word, for man to murder his brother man 
in the most cruel and horrible manner. But, notwith- 
standing this fact, we find it today not only a special 
object of consideration, but an idol of the people, sur- 
rounded with all the glory and importance that can be 
ascribed to a God by virtue of human languages, or the 
works of art. The eloquence of the orator has been 
exhausted in discourses on the cross of Christ, while 
scholastic minds have delved in lore, sacred and profane, 
so-called, to invent new theories, speculations and soph- 
istries, to present to the devotees all of which have 
tended the more fully to mystify and enslave them. The 
act of crucifixion combines all that is horrid, repulsive 
and sickening to the last degree. One has said that 
"distance lends enchantment to the view." May not 



2 00 MENACE OF THE CHRISTIAN CROSS. 

this tragedy of the cross be the strongest and most 
powerful illustration of the idea, as the devotee in imag- 
ination peers back through distant centuries? In view 
of all this, behold how the false teachings pertaining to 
the cross and the Christian scheme of salvation com- 
bined with the religious sentiment have led the world 
astray. The cross, having become the object of devo- 
tion, and a thing of worship, the Deity has been charged 
with tbe responsibility of patronizing this terrible instru- 
ment of torture upon which to crucify his innocent and 
only son. 

If man can insult and blaspheme the author of his 
being, surely this crime against the great father of life 
is its masterpiece. In view of the terrible purposes which 
called into existence the Christian cross, and the fearful 
wrongs perpetrated upon so many human beings by its 
use, it would hardly seem possible that as an emblem, 
it could be so woven into human sentiment as we behold 
it today. The story of the cross has been and still is 
forced upon the attention of the mind. From infancy 
to old age, its hideous form has been made to haunt the 
soul with a murderous thought, and human blood is the 
only consideration that has any proper relation to this 
horrid unshapsly thing — the Christian cross. It seems 
incredible that such an uncouth object, invented for such 
a terrible purpose, could become so prominently inter- 
woven with human life, and its religions; but when we 
consider that it has been carefully and insidiously im- 
pressed upon the mentality through the dark lingering 
centuries of the past, by those whom the world looked up 
to as teachers, not expecting, when they asked for bread, 
they would receive a stone — nay, it is not so strange that 
the unlearned and unsuspecting should be so led astray 
by the fabulous theories and dogmas connected with the 
mind, and thereby subjugating the many to a few, for the 
gratification found in selfishness and a thirst for power, 
to do evil rather than good. 

The church powers in this as well as spirit life, who 
have manipulated the story of the cross with such per- 
sistent efforts, are only waiting and watching for the 
opportunity and hour which will enable them to supplant 
the eagle, the emblem of American liberty, with the cross, 
the emblem of bigotry and mutual slavery, knowing 



MENACE OF THE CHRISTIAN CROSS. 2 01 

full well that popery — Catholicism — is gradually declin- 
ing in its temporal power in the older countries, where it 
rose to the zenith of its power in the centuries past. It 
now looks with covetous eye on this young republic as the 
only hope for continued life. There is evidence and testi- 
mony enough on this point to demonstrate this fact to all 
who will observe the signs of the times, and carefully 
analyze the drift of events pertaining to this important 
question. It is not the question with the magnates of the 
church, shall we have this country under our control? 
but when! On January 18, 1882, a spirit came to us 
through a medium, and said, among other things, that 
the founders and fathers of the republic in spirit life 
hoped to be able to save it from destruction, but I will 
prevent it if possible." We asked him what he meant by 
this. He replied, "I am opposed to free government." 
In addition to, and in connection with, these statements, 
we would here mention a fact which is not generally 
known, viz.: that we have already a crowned head of the 
church in this country, to whom, as a potentate of the 
church, a part of the citizens of the United States, even 
now, pay their highest allegiance. But in the event of a 
possible national revolution that might affect the church, 
there can be no doubt, with the light and knowledge re- 
flected from the past history of the movements of the 
church, as to the course that would be pursued in such 
a crisis by a crowned head, or the vicar of the Pope and 
his subjects in this country. 

The hour comes swiftly on, when the American people 
of this young but giant republic, on whose banner rests 
the bright star of civilization, must answer this most im- 
portant and vital question: Shall the cross — the emblem 
of bigotry and subjugation of the masses — supplant the 
American eagle, the emblem of our nation's freedom? 
Will the people awake to the question of national exist- 
ence, or will they wait until our republican form of 
government is undermined by that deadly power which 
drove our forefathers from their homes across the sea, 
to this western shore, where, through blood, toil, and sac- 
rifice, they laid the foundation of a government dedicated 
to freedom — a monument to liberty, and equal rights to 
all? B. B. HILL. 



Joan of Arc a Spiritual Medium. 

Savior of France, Murdered by Roman Cathoilc 

Priests, "the Mitered Slaves of England," 

Stated by Dr. H. V. Sweringen. 



Inasmuch as prominent Catholics of Chicago and else- 
where have indignantly resented the charge made hy 
Professor M. M. Mangasarian in his lecture on Joan of 
Arc, that she was burned at the stake by the Catholic 
church, which has made her a saint, it is well that more 
or less of her history should be made known to present 
generations. 

In the April, May, and June numbers of Harper's 
Monthly Magazine for 1895 is a very interesting and 
faithful account of her, written by one of her own- play- 
mates, the Sieur Louis de Conte. These personal recol- 
lections of De Conte were written in the year 1492, when 
he was eighty-two years of age. He was the page and 
secretary of Joan, and was with her from the beginning 
until the end. He was reared in the same village with 
her, played with her every day when they were little 
children together. He fought at her side in the wars, and 
said — 

"To this day I carry in my mind, fair and clear, 
the picture of that dear little figure, with breast bent to 
the flying horse's neck, charging at the head of the 
armies of France, her hair streaming back, her silver mail 
plowing steadily deeper and deeper into the thick ot 
the battle, sometimes nearly drowned" from sight by toss- 
ing heads of horses, uplifted sword-arms, wind-flown 
plumes, and intercepting shields! I was with her to 
the end; and when that black day came whose accusing- 
shadow will lie always upon the memory of the mitered 
French slaves of England who were her assassins, and 



JOAN OF ARC A SPIRITUAL MEDIUM. 203 

upon France, who stood idle ana essayed no rescue, my 
hand was the last she touched in life." 

But I can do no more than to give to the reader the 
translator's preface. These Personal Recollections hy 
the Sieur Louis De Conte were translated out of the 
ancienl French into modern English from the original 
unpublished manuscript in the National archives of 
France, by Jean Francois Alden, in 1894. 

The translator's preface is as follows: 

"To arrive at a just estimate of a renowned man's 
character, one must judge it by the standards of his 
time, not ours. Judged by the standards of one century, 
the noblest characters of an earlier one lose much of 
their luster; judged by the standards of today, there 
is probably no illustrious man of four or five centuries 
ago whose character could meet the test at all points. 
But the character of Joan of Arc is unique. It can be 
measured by the standards of all times without misgiv- 
ing or apprehension as to the result. Judged by any 
of them, judged by all of them, it is still flawless; it 
is still ideally perfect; it still occupies the loftiest place 
possible to human attainment, a loftier one than has 
been reached by any other mere mortal. 

"When we reflect that her century was the brutalest, 
the wickedest, the rottenest in history since the dark- 
est ages, we are lost in wonder at the miracle of such a 
product from such a soil. The contrast between her and 
her century is the contrast between day and night. She 
was truthful when lying was the common speech of men; 
she was honest when honesty was become a lost virtue; 
she was a keener of promises when the keeper of a 
promise was expected of no one; she gave her great 
mind to great thoughts and great purposes when other 
great minds wasted themselves upon pretty fancies or 
upon poor ambitions; she was modest and fine and deli- 
cate, when to be loud and coarse might be said to be uni- 
versal; she was full of pity when a merciless cruelty 
was the rule; she was steadfast when stability was un- 
known, and honorable in an age which had forgotten 
what honor was; she was a rock of convictions in a 
time when men believed in nothing, and scoffed at all 
things; she was unfailingly true in an age that was 
false to the core; she maintained her personal dignity 



2 04 JOAN OF ARC A SPIRITUAL MEDIUM. 

unimpaired in an age of f awnings and servilities; she 
was of a dauntless courage when hope and courage had 
perished in the hearts of her nation; she was spotlessly 
pure in mind and tody when society in the highest places 
was foul in both — she was all these things in an age 
when crime was the common business of lords and 
princes, and when the highest personages in Christendom, 
the Roman Popes, vicegerents of God, representatives 
of heaven upon earth, sole authorized agents and pur- 
veyors of salvation, only infallible models of human per- 
fection, were able to astonish even that infamous era 
and make it stand aghast at the spectacle of their atro- 
cious lives, black with unimaginable treacheries, butch- 
eries, and bestialities. 

"She was perhaps the only entirely unselfish person 
whose name has a place in profane history. No vestige 
or suggestion of self-seeking can be found in any word 
or deed of hers. When her great work was done, she was 
offered rewards and honors; but she refused them all, 
and would take nothing. All she would take for herself 
— if the king would grant it — was leave to go back to 
her village home, and tend her sheep again, and feel her 
mother's arms about her, and be her housemaid and 
helper. The selfishness of this unspoiled general of vic- 
torious armies, companion of princes, and idol of an ap- 
plauding and grateful nation, reached but that far and 
no further. 

"The saving of the French crown and nation, accom- 
plished by her, is incomparably the greatest achievement 
in human history, when one considers the conditions un- 
der which it was undertaken, the obstacles in the way, 
and the means at her disposal. Caesar carried conquest 
far, but he did it with the trained and confident veter- 
ans of Rome; Napoleon swept away the disciplined 
armies of Europe, but he began with patriot battalions 
inflamed and inspired by the miracle-working new breath 
of Liberty breathed upon them by the Revolution; but 
Joan of Arc, a mere child in years, ignorant, unknown, 
and without influence, found a great nation lying in 
chains, helpless and hopeless under an alien domination, 
its treasury bankrupt, its soldiers disheartened and dis- 
persed, all spirit torpid, all courage dead in the hearts 
cf the people through long years of foreign and domestic 



JOAN OP ARC A SPIRITUAL MEDIUM. 205 

outrage and oppression, their king cowed, resigned to 
his fate, and preparing to fly the country; and she laid 
her hand upon this nation, this corpse, and it rose and 
followed her. She broke its chains, she led it to vic- 
tory, she set it free, and it remains so to this day. 

"And for all reward, the French king, whom she had 
crowned, stood supine and indifferent while French 
priests took the noble child, the most innocent, the most 
lovely, the most adorable the ages produced, and burned 
her alive at the stake! 

"The details of the life of Joan of Arc form a biogra- 
phy which is unique among the world's biographies in 
one respect: It is the only story of a human life which 
comes to us under oath, the only one which comes to us 
from the witness-stand. The official records of the great 
trial of 1431, and of the process of rehabilitation of a 
quarter of a century later, are still preserved in the na- 
tional archives of France, and they furnish with remarka- 
ble fullness the facts of her life. The history of no 
other life of that remote time is known with either the 
certainty or the comprehensiveness that attaches to hers. 

"The Sieur Louis de Conte is faithful to her official 
history in his Personal Recollections, and thus far his 
trustworthiness is unimpeachable; but his mass of added 
particulars must depend for credit upon his own word 
alone." 

The foregoing is the translator's preface to the Sieur 
Louis de Conte's contribution to the history of Joan of 
Arc. In this history the fact is made plain that she 
was burned at the stake by French Catholic priests. 
How the Hon. John Gibbons, judge of the circuit court 
of Chicago, can now acquit the Catholic church of all 
blame for her death, can only b3 explained on the theory 
that those French priests did not constitute the Catholic 
church. They were, however, its regularly ordained 
priests and bishops, a cardinal being among them, and 
lepresentatives or delegates of the Catholic church. The 
entire faculty of the Catholic University of Paris also 
pronounced against her, and there is no record of any 
excommunications or other condemnation of the priests 
by the Pope for their brutal murder of peerless Joan of 
Arc, the hem of whose garments they were unworthy 
to touch 



206 JOAN OF ARC A SPIRITUAL MEDiCJM. 

If the Pope only is the church, as the absolutists and 
ultramontanists in it are laboring hard to establish him, 
no word of condemnation or regret ever was expressed 
by the one reigning at the time of which we write, and 
therefore, it is logical to conclude that her church is 
responsible for her cruel death, notwithstanding the fact 
that that same church has now canonized her as a blessed 
saint. 

Joan of Arc was a natural-born medium, possessed of 
the gifts of clairvoyance and clairaudience, gifts very 
dangerous to the possessor at a time when the church 
was engaged in burning witches and heretics. As a little 
scrap of history upon this subject, and a reference to 
where a most exhaustive account of it can be had, by 
one who was a playmate of Joan, and, therefore, reliable, 
the reader had better cut this out for future reference, 
for the topic will ever and anon demand attention to 
refute Catholic church denial. 



Our Next Step Forward. 

Call of the Age is For First=Hand Information Con= 

cerning Our Spiritual Being and Destiny, 

Declares W. J. Colville, 



No intelligent and observant student of the manifest 
signs of this present day can possibly fail to note the 
extreme unrest prevailing everywhere, coupled indubita- 
bly with a widespread and intense desire to fathom as 
deeply as possible the mysteries of the usually unknown 
aspects of our universe. Many causes are alleged to 
be at the root of the prevalent discontent which possesses 
so many well-to-do people, for it is not chiefly those who 
are inadequately supplied with worldly goods who mani- 
fest this token. Poverty, difficulty of finding suitable 
employment, and many other altogether external causes 
undoubtedly operate to produce dissatisfaction among 
those hard presssed by outward circumstances; there- 
fore social and political remedies may well be recom- 
mended and employed when distress is clearly due to 
outward conditions, but legislation is powerless to stem 
the tide of spiritual perturbation or to quench the thirst 
of those whose aspirations are for clearer insight into 
their own mystical interior. Spiritualism, Theosophy, 
Occultism, Mysticism, and many other less easily desig- 
nated schools of thought are now endeavoring to answer, 
to an extent hitherto unknown and formerly undemanded, 
the manifest call of the age for first-hand information 
concerning our spiritual being and the destiny of the 
individual after physical dissolution. 

As all sorts and conditions of people take an equally 
active interest in much that is generally designated psy- 
chical investigation, it is by no means surprising that 
the most conflicting theories are in constant and active 



2 OS OUR NEXT STEP FORWARD. 

circulation and that much mental confusion results there- 
from. It may sound contradictory to assert that there 
is in reality no absolute conflict between opposing theories, 
but such is essentially the case. It is because our points 
of view are commonly so narrow, as well as so diverse, 
that we think there is no reconciliatory philosophy. 
When wider outlooks and deeper reasonings than usual 
prevail, we shall find it to be quite self-evident that every 
theory may be relatively correct and yet no theory be 
absolutely all-including. 

No intelligent student of psychic phenomena who has 
enjoyed much diversified experience can fail to see how 
easily an author like Monsignor Hugh Benson may gather 
together the disagreeable material which he has dramat- 
ically utilized in his unpleasant novel, The Necromancers. 
But on the other hand it is quite as easy to discover the 
sources whence eulogies of Spiritualism derive their sus- 
tenance. The fact is that psychic experiences range over 
such an extremely extensive mental territory that they 
include the sublime and the horrible; the uplifting and 
the degrading; the comforting and the terrifying; and 
all other varieties recorded in print or recited on the 
platform. Unbalanced writers and speakers when touch- 
ing this fertile and attractive theme are almost certain 
to exhibit partisanship in such marked degree as to ren- 
der their conclusions so one-sided as to be eventually un- 
sound, even when no facts have been definitely falsified. 
Monsignor Benson sees danger and insanity ahead of 
all who toy with Spiritualism. Many Spiritualists indig- 
nantly rebut his accusations and point enthusiastically to 
the blessings they have derived from practices very 
nearly allied to those which he vociferously condemns. 
The unprejudiced and non-partisan outsider may well 
say, let the battle be fought to the sweet or bitter end 
by the interested parties; but so curt a dismisssal of an 
exciting controversy indicates indifference rather than 
interest, and it is not possible for deeply interested per- 
sons to steer entirely clear of the discussion. Wise mid- 
dle ground can easily be taken, provided we are neither 
hysterical nor fanatical, and it is only clear-headed, rea- 
soning men and women who are ever likely to arrive at 
anything like a sane decision concerning the merits and 
demerits of so large and difficult a case. On one side we 



OUR NEXT STEP FORWARD. 209 

hear a great deal about seducing spirits, obsession, and 
much else that is hideously uncanny, and we must not 
forget that many Spiritualists are quite as much con- 
vinced of obsession as are any Roman Catholics; but 
all Spiritualists ceclare that we can enjoy communion 
with pure and wise spiritual helpers if we approach the 
unseen spheres in the rightful manner, though sometimes 
very nazy notions are entertained as to what mental con- 
ditions are necessary for the evolution of the beneficent 
results desired. The subject is now so largely before the 
public, and so many theories are freely ventilated, that 
it is safe to say the time has fully come for a review of 
the entire situation from the broadest and sanest stand- 
point possible, and every one who is truly interested in 
clearing away prevailing misapprehensions may well en- 
deavor to lend an earnest hand in the clearing process. 
As many false inferences are often inadvertently 
drawn from well-ascertained phenomena, and the sad fact 
has often to be chronicled that sensitive persons are ac- 
cused of fraudulent practices when they are entirely inno- 
cent — it has become highly essential to pursue investiga- 
tions into the complexity of our human nature to an 
extent positively bewildering to the average reader. The 
Society for Psychical Research, being constituted almost 
exclusively of well-educated men and women, including 
many distinguished specialists, has quite inevitably an- 
noyed and perplexed many sincere Spiritualists and others 
who desire very simple and straightforward explanations 
of all phases of psychic phenomena. But however anx- 
ious painstaking scientific investigators may be to gratify 
this natural desire, they find themselves quite unable to 
do so by reason of the complicated character of the phe- 
nomena they observe and the frequent general unrelia- 
bility of sensitives who manifest at times, quite undenia- 
bly, their possession of unusual powers or gifts. The 
theories of dual, and even multiple, personality industri- 
ously exploited in certain quarters often seem vague and 
unsatisfying, and they fail to account for a considera- 
ble portion of arresting phenomena of special interest to 
men of the calibre of Sir Oliver Lodge, who often makes 
good a case for simplicity of statement, and has often said 
that he is convinced that even though it may be but occa- 
sionally, and then under certain difficulties, we do get real 



210 OUR NEXT STEP FORWARD. 

communications from human entities who have passed 
through the change called death. 

Though complex theories, suggested by learned men 
who are authorities in certain fields of scientific investi- 
gation, are always interesting and worthy of careful con- 
sideration, a far simpler view of phenomena taken by a 
so-called "man in the street" may be after all more nearly 
true, for the more we study the workings of the universe 
the more convinced must we become that there is. no 
unnecessary complexity anywhere, but that everything is 
run on the simplest lines possible, compatible with the 
perfect execution of an entirely harmonious plan. Such 
at least is the view taken by Professor Alfred Russel 
Wallace in his magnificent work, The World of Life, and 
by many other distinguished naturalists who study nature 
at first hand. 

A false idea of what constitutes dignity leads many 
people to suppose that, if there is any real communica- 
tion with unseen spheres of intelligent entities, it must 
all be of a very serious and almost formidable character, 
whereas from all the evidence we can gain we are led 
to conclude that the Bishop of London was quie justified 
when he said we had no valid ground for imagining that 
we should be inwardly different five minutes after physical 
dissolution from what we were five or ten minutes earlier. 
It is sach sayings as these which serve, at least in some 
slight degree, to clear away much of the unnaturalness 
of conventional notions concerning the unseen universe. 
Why there should be fear of unseen influences per se is 
rather difficult to explain, unless we admit that dread 
of the unknown, simply because it is unknown, is an 
almost universal human experience. Judging by all ac- 
counts of actual or alleged spiritual visitants through 
the literature of many ages, we can only surmise that 
they were usually accustomed to appear nearly in ordi- 
nary human guise, and very often if their appearance dif- 
fered in any way from the ordinary it was far more 
beautiful and attractive. "Young men clad in white and 
shining raiment" constitutes a familiar Biblical descrip- 
tion of angels, and such a description carries nothing 
alarming with it, but quite the reverse. 

Nowhere in Sacred Scriptures does there seem to be 
any suggestion made that we are at the mercy of diabol- 



OUR NEXT STEP FORWARD. 211 

ical entities unless, as in the case of "lying prophets," 
we have opened ourselves to infernal influx, by encour- 
aging in ourselves those dispositions which render our 
own state congenial to those deceiving entities, who may 
readily co-operate with us in mischief if our own desires 
and general tendencies are mischievous. With celestial 
angels, or any class of intelligences far beyond our pres- 
ent levels, we have probably but little to do so far as our 
consciousness is concerned, and most of us can sympa- 
thize heartily with the sentiment expressed by Dr. Joseph 
Parker (for over thirty years minister of the City Tem- 
ple, London) who shortly after the transition of his be- 
loved wife said publicly that he cared far more to know 
that he could communicate with Emma Parker than with 
a whole host of unknown angels. Considering the source 
whence that remark proceeded, it is extremely significant, 
for Dr. Parker represented Evangelical Christianity, the 
advocates of which are usually supposed to look askance 
at all that is allied with Spiritualism. The truth of the 
matter is that human instincts in time of real emotion 
are far too strong to be suppressed by aught that is 
unreasonable in codified theology; it therefore comes 
to pass, that, when suffering from a deeply felt bereave- 
ment, practically every one has the same feeling about 
the desirability of helpful and comforting spiritual com- 
munion. The altogether baseless assumption that we are 
radically changed by dropping the robe of flesh receives 
no support whatever from any logical scientific inference, 
nor can it be sustained by an appeal to aught that is 
reasonable or edifying in religion. Swedenborg's declara- 
tions concerning the perfect naturalness of the "world of 
spirits'' are quite creditable, though many inferences de- 
lived from even so great a seer's clairvoyance may be 
inaccurate if we assume that conditions immediately fol- 
i owing physical dissolution are as long-continuing as peo- 
ple often conclude. Very much, indeed, depends upon our 
general view of the inside of human nature, when we 
soberly discuss what must be the next step immediately 
following our present physical existence; and it is always 
exactly at this point that the roads divide, separating 
optimistic from pessimistic theorizers. Where there is 
no definite knowledge and people insist upon theorizing, 
they cannot do other than base their conclusions upon 



212 OUR NEXT STEP FORWARD. 

the views of human nature which they definitely enter- 
tain; for this reason it must of necessity follow that, 
if it be granted that we simply continue to live, minus 
our discarded physical envelope, the manner of our exist- 
ence must be an outgrowth of our interior condition. 

Nothing can be truer or simpler than the phrase found 
in widely circulating Jewish liturgies (vide American 
Union Prayer Book): "Death does not annihilate the 
spirit, but liberates it." Now the question instantly 
arises, who or what is that spirit that is liberated? We 
are probably in most instances possessed of much more 
interior goodness than is outwardly exhibited, and, were 
we given all possible opportunity for manifesting that 
latent goodness, we should surprise all our neighbors by 
appearing at a much greater advantage than we appeared 
when surrounded by trying and conflicting terrestrial lim- 
itations. We should not be intrinsically any better or 
nobler than before, but our formerly concealed nobility 
would be revealed. In like manner also, if it be sup- 
posed that we have secreted vicious tendencies within us 
during an earthly life-time, which for prudential reasons 
we did not allow to manifest, our post-mortem condition 
would appear far inferior morally to our previous outward 
manifestation on earth. 

A fair consideration of the foregoing will throw much 
needed light on what is often difficult to understand in 
the writings of Swedenborg and in the testimonies of 
other earlier and later seers. Communion with spiritual 
entities must depend very largely indeed upon interior 
sympathy, and very little, if at all, on the fact of previous 
acquaintanceship, for actual outward associations are not 
always provocative of friendship, but often quite the re- 
verse. To catch even a single intelligible glimpse of what 
must be the chief regulating factor in spiritual inter- 
course, we must imagine a state of society in which rela- 
tionships are immensely more voluntary than they can 
generally be on earth at present, and we must also take 
into account the obvious inference that distance as we 
know it on earth is not spiritually a separating barrier. 
That eminently philosophic writer, Dr. John James Garth 
Wilkinson, used a singularly expressive phrase, while 
seeking to explain Swedenborg, when he said that in the 
spiritiiLi world we could not be conscious of "stated 



OUR NEXT STEP FORWARD. 213 

places," as on earth, but that we should find ourselves 
in "spaced states." To simplify that profound saying 
and put it into quite common-place language, we may say 
that societies in a spiritual state of existence are consti- 
tuted through the manifest operation of what Goethe 
called "elective affinity." When this consideration re- 
ceives something like the amount of attention its im- 
portance deserves, we shall soon be able to account for 
the many apparent discrepancies which baffle inquirers 
very early in their physical investigations. What one 
communicating entity declares is well known in the spirit 
world, another knows nothing whatever about, and the 
iyro in psychical research quite naturally asks who is to 
be believed. When we advise the acceptance of the testi- 
mony of all alike as a simple record of individual experi- 
ence, be is at first mystified and cannot understand how 
such widely conflicting testimonies can be unified, but 
after submitting the case to sober philosophic reasoning 
he soon comes to the decision that every testimony may 
be true to the actual experience of the testifier, who 
cannot speak for others than himself and those whose 
similar condition causes them to share his experiences. 
Take as an illustration the widely conflicting testi- 
monies offered concerning animals and no animals in spirit 
Hfe. At first it seems incredible that contradictory declar- 
ations are alike true, but it may yet be discovered that 
these opposite testimonies come, in the one case, from 
those who have such sympathy that they perceive animals 
and enjoy association with them, and, in the other case, 
from those who have no sympathy with animals and 
therefore see nothing of them. We all know that much 
that gives great pleasure to some people on earth is a 
source of annoyance to others, and, had. all these differ- 
ent pei sons an entirely free hand to regulate their sur- 
roundings, their respective environments would be widely 
diverse. Supposing now that they can and do regulate 
their surroundings in spirit life to a far greater extent 
than they ever found it possible on earth — seeing that 
the matter of the astral realm is far more pliable than 
the much grosser matter of the physical plane, and this 
also applies fully to the relative transportability at will 
of our astral and physical bodies respectively — the case 
is quite easily established for the equal veracity of dif- 



214 OUR NEXT STEP FORWARD. 

ferent testifiers, describing their own relative and neces- 
sarily very limited experiences after physical dissolution, 
it is only from higher spheres, where intelligence is much 
more extensive, that we can derive information so wide- 
embracing that it solves riddles instead of creating puz- 
zles, and though the very highest circles surrounding this 
planet — and indeed comprising its widest spiritual region 
— are accessible to all who provide necessary conditions 
for consciously approaching them, it is only with com- 
parative rarity that our aspirations rise into such exalted 
states as to make communion with them a known fact in 
our psychical experience. 

A very definite word needs frequently to be uttered 
concerning the pros and cons of common methods of at- 
tempting communion with unseen entities, for there are 
said to be grave dangers confronting all who rashly seek 
to peer through the mystic veil which hides the spirit 
world from ordinary mundane vision. It can never be 
desirable to subject one's self blindly and unreservedly 
to unknown forces, and it must always be dangerous to 
seek any kind of intercourse with the spirit world for 
unworthy and unrighteous ends; but, that point settled, 
there still remains a very wide uncertain territory where 
we need to exercise reasonable caution, but where we may 
Jearn to make investigations profitably as well as safely, 
provided our intentions are invariably upright and we 
never permit ourselves to yield foolishly to promptings 
from the unseen, as though whatever proceeded from a 
mysterious region was necessarily of great importance 
and altogether trustworthy. Ordinary clairvoyance, psy- 
chometry, and kindred demonstrations of limited medium- 
istic capacity are not now as definite as we hope they will 
become in the near future, and many of them are of only 
very slight evidential value. There are, however, many 
instances occurring where some very useful light is thrown 
on psychic matters, and many more where comparatively 
trivial incidents have served to pave the way for much 
more important results that quickly followed. 

Let us picture a scientific man, hard-headed and 
avowedly agnostic, but fair-minded, consulting a clair- 
voyant with a view to recovering his favorite dog which 
has strayed from home. Many people entertain such 
stilted and stupid notions about the spirit world that 



OUR NEXT STEP FORWARD. 215 

they seem to be quite shocked at the idea of using clair- 
voyance for any such mundane purpose, quite forgetful, 
if they respect the Bible, that so great a prophet as 
Samuel in no way rebuked young men who inquired of 
him as to the whereabouts of missing donkeys. Our 
agnostic inquirer may be a very kind-hearted, truth-seek- 
ing man who is actuated by two noble motives when he 
consults the seer, one of which is to find the lost animal, 
which may be suffering, and in danger from the emissaries 
of vivisectors, and the other a sincere desire to test the 
claims of clairvoyance with a view to proving, if possi- 
ble, that there really is a psychic faculty of which he 
has heard much, but which he has never yet seen demon- 
strated.. Our advice to the clairvoyant is to find the 
dog, if possible, and we stoutly maintain that to do so 
is to perform a lawful and even praiseworthy act. But 
should any one approach a clairvoyant seeking to make 
mischief in a family or in any way obtain information to 
the detriment of others, if that clairvoyant wishes to 
attract only safe and desirable psychic influences, a point- 
blank refusal must at once be given. 

Moral aspects of any case are always far more import- 
ant than physical, and as our relation with unseen enti- 
ties is primarily and ultimately based in the realm of in- 
tention, if we resolve always to act with honorable mo- 
tives only, and to serve upright causes exclusively, we 
can go forward with psychical investigation loyally and 
fearlessly, because we have unreservedly consecrated 
whatever gifts or endowments we possess to the service 
of righteousness, which must ever include the genuine 
scientific enlightenment of the whole human race. 



IAN 2 1912 




